Zika detected in urine, saliva: top Brazilian researchers

“Pregnant women should consider avoiding travel to countries with the Zika virus – or if travel is unavoidable, they ought to seek travel health advice from their GP or a travel clinic well in advance of their trip”.

More than 3,100 pregnant women in Colombia are infected with the Zika virus, President Juan Manuel Santos confirmed.

A pregnant Spanish woman has been diagnosed with the Zika virus in what is thought to be one of the first cases in Europe.

The blood transfusions on a gunshot victim and a patient getting a liver transplant were conducted in early 2015, but the transmission of Zika was only recently confirmed, the newspaper said.

The country’s Caribbean region, which includes popular tourist destinations Cartagena and Santa Marta, had more than 11,000 cases of the virus, the bulletin showed.

“But that does not mean there is a capacity for transmission through saliva and urine”, he added.

The Government has also announced a further £1 million funding for research to tackle the Zika virus.

No medication is available to treat Zika virus nor is there a vaccine.

The number of cases in Florida has risen to 14, Florida Surgeon General Dr. John Armstrong said in a news release.

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“We suspect we’ll see more, not just in the state of Texas but in Austin/Travis County”, said Jeffery Taylor, senior epidemiologist with Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department.

Doctors say most people never know they’ve been infected with Zika, which causes mild symptoms at the worst – mostly a rash and fever.

“One crucial question is whether the bilateral sharing comes with any strings attached”, said Lawrence Gostin, a global health law expert at Georgetown University.

The people most seriously affected are pregnant women and their fetuses.

World Health Organization director-general Dr Margaret Chan said she was moved to do so, after growing evidence the virus can trigger potentially life-threatening birth defects in newborn babies.

Yoon, who studied the Zika virus when he worked in Thailand and the Philippines, pointed out that if a mosquito bites an infected person and then goes on to bite another, the disease can be transmitted.

The Zika-spreading mosquito has always been a dominant breed in South China, said Guo Yuhong, a researcher at the Infectious Disease Institute of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials are investigating whether there is a link between Zika infections in pregnant women and a rare birth defect.

Brazilian organizers have reiterated they have no intention of canceling the Rio de Janeiro Olympics because of the outbreak of the Zika virus, with Sports Minister George Hilton saying the topic “is not in discussion”.

“Although Florida’s current nine Zika cases were travel-related, we have to ensure Florida is prepared and stays ahead of the spread of the Zika virus in our state”, Scott said.