As Zika spreads, US reports sexually transmitted case

Miami: The first known case of Zika virus transmission in the US was reported in Texas on Tuesday by local health officials, who said it likely was contracted through sex and not a mosquito bite, a day after the World Health Organization declared an international public health emergency.

Miami, February 3

The first known case of Zika virus transmission in the US was reported in Texas on Tuesday by local health officials, who said it likely was contracted through sex and not a mosquito bite, a day after the World Health Organization declared an international public health emergency.

The virus, linked to severe birth defects in thousands of babies in Brazil, is spreading rapidly in the Americas, and WHO officials on Tuesday expressed concern that it could hit Africa and Asia as well.

The development is a troubling prospect for the US, Canada and Europe, where Zika had so far only appeared in travelers 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" this year, a Dallas County statement read.

The County subsequently tweeted that the virus was contracted from someone who had traveled to Venezuela, and that a second case of Zika imported from Venezuela has also been documented.

Dr Tom Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), later confirmed in an email the case of sexually transmitted infection reported earlier in Texas. Someone who visited Venezuela and was infected there developed Zika symptoms as did their sexual partner who never left the US, he said on Twitter.

The Texas Department of State Health Services was more cautious, saying: "Case details are being evaluated, but the possibility of sexual transmission from an infected person to a non-infected person is likely in this case." Last month, the CDC said it was aware of one reported case of sexual transmission of Zika and one case of the virus being present in a man's semen after it disappeared from his blood. — Agencies