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Symptoms Most people infected with Zika virus won’t even know they have the disease because they won’t have symptoms. The most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain, or conjunctivitis (red eyes). Other common symptoms include muscle pain and headache. The incubation period (the time from exposure to symptoms) for Zika virus disease is not known, but is likely to be a few days to a week. See your healthcare provider if you are pregnant and develop a fever, rash, joint pain, or red eyes within 2 weeks after traveling to a place where Zika has been reported....

Sexual transmission of the Zika virus is more common than previously thought, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, citing reports from several countries. After a meeting of its emergency committee on Tuesday, the U.N. health agency also said there is increasing evidence that a spike in disturbing birth defects and neurological problems are caused by Zika, which is mostly spread by mosquito bites. When WHO declared the explosive outbreak in the Americas to be a global emergency last month, it said that the evidence that Zika was responsible was only circumstantial. WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said "reports and investigations...

TURBO, Colombia - The Zika epidemic flaring across the Americas has produced several hot spots with large numbers of cases. But there is no place quite like Turbo.The mosquito-borne virus has spread rapidly here and across lowland Colombia, but the city is unusual for the subsequent outbreak of a rare, debilitating disorder known as Guillain-Barre syndrome, whose precise link to the virus remains unclear. Before Zika's arrival in Turbo...

Venezuelan opposition legislator José Manuel Olivares claims the country has under-reported cases of the Zika virus and the country lacks necessary medical supplies to properly combat the outbreak sweeping the region. “I hope that President Nicolas Maduro will not continue putting policy and ideology before the health and life of Venezuelans,” he declared.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has sparked a global scare over a tropical virus outbreak that officials say is worse than last year's Ebola epidemic, which killed 11,000 people in Africa. They predict the Zika virus could infect as many as four million people by the end of 2016. "Last year, the virus was detected in the Americas, where it is now spreading explosively," warned WHO Director-General Margaret Chan in January. She told her executive board in Geneva that the "level of alarm is extremely high," and on February 1 declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.For...

With the mosquito-borne Zika virus continuing to spread through Central and South America, Pope Francis said today that contraception could be seen as "the lesser of two evils" if women are concerned about having children with the birth defect microcephaly. The Zika virus is usually mild, but has been associated with a rise of the alarming birth defect, characterized by an abnormally small head and brain, often leading to significant developmental delays. The pope compared the situation to a decree issued by Pope Paul VI, which said nuns in Africa could use contraception due to the threat of rape.

While there have been no reports to date of Zika virus entering the U.S. blood supply, the risk of blood transmission is considered likely based on the most current scientific evidence of how Zika virus and similar viruses (flaviviruses) are spread and recent reports of transfusion-associated infection outside of the U.S. Furthermore, about 4 out of 5 of those infected with Zika virus do not become symptomatic. For these reasons, the FDA is recommending that blood establishments defer blood donations from individuals in accordance with the new guidance.

The Zika virus ravaging South America causes horrific problems including birth defects and creeping paralysis. And now it has made its way to 16 US states. There is no vaccine. With the Zika virus declared an international public health emergency a few weeks ago by the World Health Organization, it seems a good time to remind people of another mosquito borne disease with even more horrible effects--malaria. [...] You see, malaria was eliminated in the West and North because of the invention, and use, of the miracle pesticide DDT. DDT could stop Zika, just as it stopped malaria. For that...

They bite during the day and find humans tastier than the rest of the animal kingdom -- and that's exactly what makes the Aedes mosquito so dangerous. Well, that and the fact that it carries the Zika virus, which has terrified the globe. "There is the enemy," Dr. Tom Frieden, chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Congress as he projected an image of the bug on screen last week, calling for a massive effort -- with a staggering $1.8 billion price tag -- to combat the danger. The Zika virus is an obscure agent that festered...

The World Health Organization says the Guillain-Barre neurological disorder is on the rise in several Latin American countries that are also seeing an outbreak of the Zika virus BERLIN (AP) - A rare neurological disorder is on the rise in several Latin American countries that are also seeing an outbreak of the Zika virus' the World Health Organization said Saturday. The U.N. health body in Geneva said in a weekly report that Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), which can cause temporary paralysis, has been reported in Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Suriname and Venezuela. The increase in Guillain-Barre cases is appearing in conjunction...

The executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) asserts that a lifting of the ban on DDT could prevent the spread of the Zika virus, just as it could have wiped out malaria. Dr. Jane Orient tells Breitbart News the major public health measure required to combat the Zika virus pandemic is mosquito control and says, "DDT was the most effective public health weapon of all time." Orient continues: The ban on DDT was basically the decision of one man, William Ruckelshaus, going against a mountain of evidence on safety and enormous health benefits. It was...

The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) has recommended that any athlete or trainer concerned about the Zika outbreak in Latin America should consider not attending the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Two anonymous sources told Reuters that the USOC issued the suggestion late in January on a teleconference call. President and board chairman of USA fencing Donald Anthony said no person should travel if "they don't feel comfortable going. Bottom line." "One of the things that they immediately said was, especially for women that may be pregnant or even thinking of getting pregnant, that whether you are scheduled to...

A state of emergency has been declared in four Florida counties -- Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Lee, and Santa Rosa -- after nine people were diagnosed with the Zika virus. While the nine people are believed to have contracted the virus while out of the country, Florida's governor, Rick Scott, said he wants the state to be on high alert. "Although Florida's current nine Zika cases were travel-related, we have to ensure Florida is prepared and stays ahead of the spread of the Zika virus in our state," Scott said in a statement on Thursday. "Our Department of Health will continue to...

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Scientists identified the Zika virus in the saliva and urine of two infected patients, a top Brazilian biomedical research institution said on Friday, prompting its president to urge pregnant women not to kiss strangers just as local carnival celebrations begin.

(English translation) In the wake of scores of [Zika] cases that have been reported in eastern Puerto Rico and due to fears that it will spread to other municipalities, Department of Consumer Affairs (DACO) Secretary Nery Adames announced that the agency added condoms to the list of price freezes related to Zika-virus prevention due to the alleged relationship to sexual transmission. "Because of the causal relationship that has been established between a mosquito bite and the probability of sexual transmission, a price freeze on prophylactics and/or preservatives has been ordered. Therefore, every store, service station, place, or business that sells...

(English translation) The tourism industry in Puerto Rico has begun to feel the impact of [the] Zika [virus]. Hotel & Tourism Association President Clarisa Jimenez told the newspaper El Vocero that some hotels have reported cancellations after the island was included among scores of countries under the World Health Organization alert declaring the disease a global public-health emergency. The cancellations have been mainly for trips related to so-called destination weddings since guests have included pregnant women, a population for whom public-health authorities have recommended special caution. According to Jimenez, it is still too difficult to estimate the economic impact of...

But a few experts feel the prospect is disturbing enough that federal health officials should inform all travelers, not just pregnant women, of the potential danger. On Monday, the Pan American Health Organization warned that Zika virus is likely to spread to every country in the Americas except Canada and Chile.

Dallas county health authorities said Tuesday they have received confirmation of the first Zika virus case acquired through sexual transmission. In a statement, the Dallas County Health and Human Services said the patient was infected with the virus after having sexual contact with a sick person who returned from a country where Zika virus is present. Dallas authorities said they received confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For medical confidentiality and personal privacy reasons, Dallas health authorities said they are not providing additional identifying information.

A person in Texas has been infected with the Zika virus after having sex with an ill person who had returned from a country where the disease was present, Dallas County health officials said Tuesday.

The first known case of Zika virus transmission in the United States 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. Zika had been thought to be spread by the bite of mosquitoes of the Aedes genus, so...