CDC steps up screening of pregnant women for Zika virus

In newly issued guidelines about sexual transmission of the disease. official said men who have traveled to Zika-infected countries should use condoms or abstain from sex for the duration of their partner’s pregnancy.

Because of those cases, the CDC says men and women who have traveled to high risk areas should abstain from sex.

“With the risk of incidence of new infections of Zika virus in many countries…it is estimated as an appropriate precautionary measure to defer donors who return from areas with Zika virus outbreaks”, the World Health Organization told the French News Agency, AFP, Thursday.

In the Dallas case, a person contracted Zika virus after having sex with a man who had recently returned from Venezuela, and had symptoms of the infection. Any pregnant women showing symptoms should be tested, the agency said. “Because how can they ask those women not to become pregnant but also not offer them first information that is available, but the possibility to stop their pregnancies if they wish?”

“The Zika virus is transferred by mosquitoes that are not indigenous to the Mahoning valley, actually to OH”, said Mahoning County Health Commissioner Patricia Sweeney.

The best way, overall, to avoid Zika is to prevent mosquito bites by wearing long sleeves and long trousers, use insect repellents, and if you’re in a country where Zika virus has been found, stay in places with air conditioning, and window and door screens.

Frieden said that the data on saliva and on urine “is less clear”.

The suspected link appears “stronger and stronger” as researchers study whether there is a causal connection, the director of the CDC said on Friday.

The mosquito-borne virus is most prevalent in Latin America, particularly Brazil, and poses its greatest danger to pregnant women. “I don’t know”, said Frieden.

Officials warned that the species of mosquito most commonly associated with transmission of Zika – the aedes mosquito – is not now active in New York City or the surrounding areas.

Though presence of the Zika virus has been identified in 17 cases of babies with microcephaly, as the condition is known, there is no solid proof that the virus causes it. Babies with microcephaly have abnormally small heads and often have underdeveloped brains.

Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the virus actually causes microcephaly.