Zika virus spreads sexually

Part-MVD-Mvd6741373-1-1-0GENEVA. — There are two recorded cases when the highly dangerous Zika virus may have been transmitted through sexual intercourse, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The WHO says between 3 and 4 million people may have been infected this year alone. “There is one reported case of Zika virus through possible sexual transmission,” said Anna Schuchat, deputy director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), referring to the case of a 44-year-old Tahiti man who contracted the virus during its outbreak in French Polynesia in 2013. A test revealed high levels of the virus in his semen even after it had been no longer present in his blood samples, the New York Times reported. The Zika virus is “spreading explosively” in the Americas and the region may see up to four million cases of the disease strongly suspected of causing birth defects, the World Health Organisation warns. — AFP/RT.

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