Zika detected in urine, saliva-top Brazilian researchers

The developments came on the heels of an Associated Press report earlier this week that revealed that worldwide health officials were frustrated at Brazil’s refusal to share enough viral samples and other information to answer the most worrying question about the outbreak: Whether the disease is truly causing a spike in babies born with abnormally small heads?

However, according to the state’s department of public health, there have been six confirmed cases of Zika virus in California that were contracted when people traveled to countries where the virus is circulating.

Researchers have been reluctant, nonetheless, to say definitively that Zika is connected to the birth defect, in part because very little is known about the virus.

“We have a female, a resident of Rockland County, who traveled to South America, and within a few days of returning here had symptoms of Zika virus presented to her provider who contacted us”, Ruppert said.

Other labs, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, must now confirm the Fiocruz finding, Gupta said.

The Texas case, the first known instance of a person becoming infected while in the United States, immediately raised a whole new set of concerns about the rapid spread of the pathogen.

People can catch the Zika virus after being bitten by an infected Aedes mosquito. Still, most worldwide experts are cautious about whether Zika can trigger the rare syndrome, which can cause complete paralysis, because other infections and conditions can lead to the illness. Any new cases in Spain are likely to be imported, it said.

Those tests would be serological blood tests, in addition to the ultrasounds recommended in the CDC’s first round of guidance.

There is now no treatment for Zika.

On Friday the agency recommended that any pregnant woman who has traveled to one of the affected countries be tested for the presence of the virus between two to 12 weeks of her return home.

Meanwhile, U.S. health officials said men who have visited an area with Zika should use condoms if they have sex with a pregnant woman – for the entire duration of the pregnancy.

President Barack Obama’s allies in the Senate are urging him to ramp up the government’s response to the outbreak of the Zika virus in the Americas and the potential for its widening spread in the United States.

One case of the Zika virus has been confirmed in Georgia, a traveler who had been in Colombia.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil-Brazil’s top research institute said Friday that Zika has been detected in urine and saliva, but added that there is no proof the virus can be transmitted through those fluids.

The World Health Organization said that between January 2014 and February 5, 2016, a total of 33 countries have reported indigenous circulation of Zika virus.

Zika virus has actually been around for more than 60 years.

Because the spread of Zika is primarily achieved through bites from infected mosquitoes, the CDC has also issued recommendations to avoid risks of mosquito bites.

The CDC has not issued warnings about acquiring Zika through kissing, nor should it at this point, Gluckman said.

Typically, only a fifth of those afflicted with Zika notice its mild symptoms, including a moderate fever and a rash.

Puerto Rico has become the latest country to declare a public health emergency. “The science is not clear on how long the risk [of infection] should be avoided”, it noted.