Sexual link to Zika may cause escalation

The director of the Pan American Health Organisation has said confirmation that the Zika virus can be transmitted sexually would change the paradigm of the quickly spreading epidemic.

Carissa Etienne made the comments in Uruguay while attending an emergency meeting of health ministers from Latin America.

Health officials in the US state of Texas said that a patient there acquired Zika through sex with an ill person who returned from Venezuela, where the virus was present.