Women can spread Zika Virus, CDC says

A pregnant woman in Slovenia had an abortion last month after she was found to have the Zika virus, the BBC reported. All other couples in which a partner has been in an area with Zika can also reduce the risk of sexual transmission by using condoms or abstaining from sex.

Updated interim guidance for healthcare providers caring for pregnant women with possible exposure to Zika virus; and Updated interim guidance for the prevention of sexually transmitted Zika virus.

The CDC had advised that pregnant women who showed possible Zika symptoms – headache, fever, body aches – could be effectively tested for the virus within a week.

In a related news, the mosquito control officials from Florida have also raised concerns about the costs of the efforts to curb the spread of the Zika virus.

The use of blood and urine test will expand the timeframe from one week to two weeks, from the time symptoms first appear. Authorities said it is the first such case in Europe.

The new results support the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) that “postponing or relocating the Olympics is not going to meaningfully impact the worldwide spread of Zika”, said lead author Joseph Lewnard, of the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Connecticut. CDC will continue to update this guidance as new information becomes available.

There have been more than 1,400 confirmed Zika cases in the United States, but so far all of them have been contracted through travel overseas – either by a mosquito bite or by sexual intercourse with someone who had traveled to a Zika-infected area. While Zika is still circulating in the country, Colombia considers the drop-off sufficient to say it has moved into an endemic phase from the epidemic phase.

The British Olympic Association met with experts from the London School of Tropical Medicine in February to discuss how to protect their athletes from the virus, and Brazil’s health authorities have mobilised to fight the virus. Brazil is expected to have the largest number of infections – by more than three-fold – due to its size and favorable conditions for transmission of the virus.

A total of 190 cases have been reported in Spain, the majority of which has been linked with travels to affected areas while one is believed to have been caused by sexual exposure.

Researchers are still studying the link between the Zika Virus and microcephaly. Only about 20 percent of patients notice symptoms.