News / France

France reports first case of sexually transmitted Zika

Sunday, 28 February 2016 2:56 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 28 February 2016 2:55 AM ]

A vector control agent patrols in the Riviere Pilote district in Martinique, French overseas territories, on February 20, 2016, to fight against the epidemic of Zika virus. (AFP)

Europe’s first case of the sexually transmitted Zika virus has been detected in France, where a woman has been infected after her partner’s return from Brazil.

The infected woman, however, is not pregnant and recovering well while at low risk of any complications, said the French minister of social affairs, health and women’s rights, Marisol Touraine, on Saturday.

Director of France's Institute for Public Health Surveillance (IVS), Francois Bourdillon, further stated in an interview with the local BFM TV broadcaster that the infected subject was the nation’s "first confirmed indigenous case of [Zika] transmission."

"This was a woman who had never traveled. Her partner had come from Brazil, so she was tested," Bourdillon added, noting that both Zika-infected patients were doing well.

According to local authorities, the victim “showed classic signs of the disease” but was not hospitalized.

Up to 46 states have reported some degree of evidence of Zika infection and 130 countries are home to the Aedes aegypti mosquito that carries the Zika virus, which would mean the disease may become rapidly widespread, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Other European countries such as Denmark, Germany, and Britain have also reported cases of the infection in tourists returning from affected regions.

There is no cure or treatment for the virus, which is usually transmitted by mosquitoes and has spread mostly in Latin America.

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