South Africa diagnoses first case of Zika virus

No additional details about the adult patient have been released, but officials said the patient’s symptoms “have resolved”.

Preliminary results of the two case control studies conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Brazilian biomedical research centers in the northeastern states of Bahia and Paraiba should be ready “this spring”, said CDC principal deputy director Anne Schuchat.

Citing concerns for patient confidentiality, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services declined to answer questions about the person’s gender, when he or she traveled overseas and returned to North Carolina, where and how the person contracted the virus, when the person was diagnosed, where the person lives, and whether the person is a woman of child-bearing age.

Evidence is building that Zika causes birth defects including microcephaly, characterized by a damaged and underdeveloped brain, other brain damage and a paralyzing condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome.

They urged travellers to “take protective measures to prevent mosquito bites” and said women who are pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant should consider postponing trips to Zika-prone countries. The Iowa resident – whose hometown has not been disclosed – recently traveled to countries where transmission of the virus is ongoing. There is no specific treatment or vaccine now available.

Until lately, experts thought Zika caused only mild symptoms, including fever, joint pain and rashes with the majority of infected people showing no symptoms at all.

But now the World Heath Organization has said a different disease could pose an even bigger threat than the Ebola outbreak: the Zika virus.

The virus, caused by the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito, is now circulating in Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific. Cases of transmission through sexual contact and blood transfusion have been reported.

The head of the World Health Organization’s Zika response team is predicting that Brazil will host a “fantastic Olympics” and that the mosquito-borne virus will be “way down” by the time the Summer Games begin in Rio de Janeiro on August 5.

Travelers can protect themselves by wearing insect repellent registered with the Environmental Protection Agency, wearing long-sleeved shirts and trousers and using air conditioning or making sure window and door screens are in place.