Health officials on Tuesday reported the first known case of the Zika virus in the United States, and the infection in Texas is said to have been transmitted through sexual contact. It was previously thought that the virus was only transmittable through mosquito bites.
Dallas County Health and Human Services confirmed the report through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Reports state the unidentified person contracted the virus after a sexual encounter with another person that recently returned from Venezuela. The person who contracted the virus from the traveler had not gone abroad. The Texas Department of State Health Services was not ready to immediately confirm sexual transmitability but said that was likely the cause. Dallas County HHS sent out a series of tweets, confirming the virus was contracted through sex.
Before this case, the World Health Organization acknowledged one case of possible Zika virus transmitted through sex but noted the need for more medical research before reaching a definite conclusion.
Zika threatens more than 4 million people in the Americas, and several countries are working on ways to combat the virus. Experts have stated that a vaccine for the virus is months, if not, years away.
"Most important, we need to set up surveillance sites in low- and middle-income countries so that we can detect any change in the reporting patterns of microcephaly at an early stage," said Dr. Anthoy Costello, WHO's director for maternal, child and adolescent health.
Zika causes severe birth defects in infants and has already infected thousands of babies in Brazil. The WHO recently declared the virus a public health emergency, according to Reuters.
Zika rarely results in hospitalization or death, but concern mounts over babies born with microcephaly, as reported by CBS Local.
"We should all be worried about microcephaly," Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff stated.
Brazilian babies born with brain defects and extremely small heads are linked to the virus, though researchers have not reached a definite conclusion. Thousands of babies born with microcephaly have been reported in Brazil since October.
Brazil is set to hold this year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Fear of the virus was the main talking point at a recent Olympic committee hearing, according to The New York Times.
Meanwhile, Asia is hunkering down for a virus outbreak. Indonesia, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Singapore are taking up mosquito control measures to stave off the virus.
"We are ramping up research, not just on Zika, but also on all other viruses in the mosquito vector such as dengue and chikungunya, and doing checks on carriers across the provinces gradually - this is related to entomology," said Dr. Oscar Primaldi from Indonesia, according to The Strait Times.
