France says detects first sexually transmitted Zika case

Since August, the CDC has tested 257 pregnant women for Zika; eight were positive and a state lab confirmed a ninth. “Suddenly seeing something this severe and this new in such numbers is unprecedented”, said Dr. William Dobyns with the Children’s Research Institute. By Nov. 17, just those seven states had 400 reported cases.

Though the link between Zika and microcephaly is questionable, “the evidence for this is getting stronger by the day”, CDC Director Tom Frieden told reporters on a conference call.

There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika.

Symptoms of the virus include fever, rash and joint pain.

Those destinations are among the 30 places now on the CDC’s travel alert.

Two pregnancies are continuing with no reported complications. If the virus does cause the birth defects, officials would expect to see a cluster of microcephaly in Colombia in June, based on the pattern of how Zika spread from Brazil. “Given the recent spread of the virus, systematic investigation of spontaneous abortions and stillbirths may be warranted to evaluate the risk that ZIKV infection imparts on these outcomes”. The CDC is covering the cost of testing for these women within two to 12 weeks of their returns to the U.S.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Leilani Dominicci has all a standard worries of profound women and a new one swelling opposite Puerto Rico: a fear she will turn putrescent with a Zika pathogen and put her baby during risk.

The Zika virus is known to be transmitted by mosquitos. Approximately one in five people infected with the virus show symptoms. The agency again advised that pregnant women consider not going and that their male sexual partners use condoms after the trip or abstain from sex during the pregnancy. Haiti has reported some-more than 500 cases, though a tangible series is believed to be many aloft since of diseased monitoring systems. The report concerned a stillborn Brazilian fetus that had nearly no brain tissue and unsafe fluid buildup in other parts of its body.

Europe’s first case of the sexually transmitted Zika virus has been recorded in France, where a woman has been infected after her partner returned from Brazil.

“So far, we have not found any cases of microcephaly linked with Zika here”, he said.

“The Zika outbreak in Brazil is dynamic”, states the CDC warning, which covers both pregnant women and those who are actively trying to conceive.

The first precaution for pregnant women is to postpone travel to areas with active Zika transmission.

Brazil has confirmed more than 580 cases of microcephaly and is investigating more than 4,100 suspected cases.