No evidence of Olympic Zika spread, WHO committee says

On Thursday, the center announced that Zika-infected mosquitoes had been found for the first time in the mainland USA, in part of Miami B each.

The Centers for Disease Control reportedly said that a Aedes aegypti mosquito can spread the virus if it bites a Zika virus – infected individual and subsequently bites another individual. State officials did not reveal how the mosquitoes were captured.

“This is disappointing but not surprising”, Florida agriculture commissioner Adam Putnam said in a statement Thursday. “Florida is among the best in the nation when it comes to mosquito surveillance and control, and this detection enables us to continue to effectively target our resources”, he added.

Florida is the first USA state to report locally transmitted Zika cases.

Singapore authorities say 115 people have now tested positive for the virus, including a pregnant woman and 57 foreigners living and working in the city-state.

Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly – a severe birth defect in which the head and brain are undersized. Some people in Brazil contracted the virus when the country hosted the World Cup in 2014.

“While this study reminds us that many parts of the world have ideal conditions for the virus to take hold it can’t pinpoint exactly where this will happen”, said Jonathan Ball, professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham.

Zika, which is mainly a mosquito-borne disease, was first detected in Brazil past year and has been spreading globally.

Zika is spread by Aedes mosquitoes, resulting in quick transmission between people, especially in high-density populations.

The woman was referred to the Sungai Buloh Hospital and a urine test confirmed she was infected with the Zika virus, he said. Some children born with microcephaly can live productive lives, but the infants most affected tend not to survive long.

The Zika virus, which was first identified in the Zika Forest of Uganda in 1947, has since been known to occur in equatorial regions in Africa and Asia.

New research published in August scanned babies’ brains to determine how the virus affected them.

Angola, which is already struggling with an epidemic of yellow fever, would be one of the African countries most at risk because of its important economic ties with Brazil.