Indonesia confirms first case, WHO says Europe must act early to prevent spread
The Zika virus has been transmitted sexually, top US health authorities confirmed on Tuesday, fuelling fears of the rapid spread of the disease blamed for a surge in the number of brain-damaged babies.
With concern growing that an outbreak sweeping Latin America could spread much farther, health authorities in Texas said they had confirmation of the virus being transmitted by sexual contact and not just tropical mosquitoes.
That is a troubling prospect for the United States, Canada and Europe, where Zika had so far only appeared in travellers returning from affected areas.
“The patient was infected with the virus after having sexual contact with an ill individual who returned from a country where Zika virus is present” in 2016, a Dallas county statement read.
The county subsequently tweeted that the virus was contracted from someone who had travelled to Venezuela, and that a second case of Zika imported from Venezuela has also been documented.
Dr Tom Frieden, director of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention later on Tuesday confirmed in an email the case of sexually transmitted infection reported earlier in Texas.
Indonesia on Wednesday officially confirmed a case of the Zika virus dating back to 2015, but said it was prepared to handle any outbreak of the disease.
Government officials confirmed a single case of the mosquito-borne Zika virus had been detected in Jambi on Sumatra island. It was discovered by researchers studying specimens taken during a dengue fever outbreak between December 2014 and April 2015.
“We found an infected patient in Jambi. The presentation by the health minister showed that it is under control,” senior minister Puan Maharani said after a high-level meeting convened by President Joko Widodo to discuss the virus.
The WHO urged European countries on Wednesday to act swiftly to fend off the Zika virus.
“I urge European countries to act early in a coordinated way to control the mosquito,” the WHO’s European director Zsuzsanna Jakab said in a statement.
This must include “community engagement in eliminating breeding sites and planning for insecticide spraying and the killing of the larvae.”
The virus is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito which is not a complete stranger to Europe where it has been sighted sporadically.
