The Zika virus has been transmitted sexually, top US health authorities have confirmed, fueling 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, reports AFP.
That is a troubling prospect for the United States, 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 later Tuesday confirmed in an email the case of sexually transmitted infection reported earlier in Texas.
