Pregnant woman among seven zika virus cases in Spain

A pregnant woman is among the seven people identified as being infected with the zika virus in Spain after visiting affected countries.

The country’s health ministry said the woman travelled to Colombia, was presumably infected during the trip and is in her second trimester of pregnancy.

She is under medical supervision in the north-eastern region of Catalonia.

The ministry says the number of cases diagnosed so far are within expectations and do not pose a risk for the virus to be spread in Spain.

But scientists have warned that hundreds of thousands of people in Spain could be infected if local mosquitoes begin to transmit the virus, which has been linked to severe birth defects.

Frederic Bartumeus, a research professor based in Catalonia, says the threat could be much bigger if the tiger mosquito (aedes albopictus) begins to spread the disease.

Currently zika is only known to be spread through the bites of the aedes aegypti mosquito which rarely travels to Europe.

But Prof Bartumeus said he was certain the tiger mosquito could carry the virus.

Meanwhile, Brazilian health authorities confirmed a case of transmission of zika through a transfusion of blood from a donor who had been infected with the mosquito-borne virus that is spreading rapidly through the Americas.

The health department of Campinas, an industrial city near Sao Paulo, said a hospital patient with gunshot wounds became infected with zika after multiple blood transfusions in April 2015.

Officials said they determined that one of the people whose donated blood was used in the transfusion had been infected with zika.

The blood centre at the University of Campinas said a second person who donated blood in May developed symptoms and tested positive for zika, though the recipient of the contaminated blood has not developed symptoms of the virus.

Brazil’s Health Ministry said the first patient died of his wounds and not from the zika infection.

It said it was reinforcing instructions to blood banks that people infected with zika or dengue not be permitted to donate blood for 30 days after their full recovery from the active stage of zika infection.

Transmission of zika through blood transfusions adds another dimension to the outbreak of the virus. The virus is usually transmitted by the bite of a mosquito.

News of the mosquito-borne virus, thought to cause birth defects, first emerged in Brazil last year, and health authorities have warned the disease could infect up to four million people in the Americas and spread worldwide.

The fever starts with a mosquito bite and normally causes little more than a fever and rash.

But since October, Brazil has reported 404 confirmed cases of microcephaly where the baby’s head is abnormally small — up from 147 in 2014— plus 3,670 suspected cases.

The timing has fuelled strong suspicions that zika is causing the birth defect.

The virus has also been linked to a potentially paralysing nerve disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome in some patients.

According to mosquito maps found on the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control website, the Aedes aegypti mosquito which carries the virus is established in Georgia, part of Russia next to the Black Sea, and Madeira.

Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO regional director for Europe, said: “Every European country in which Aedes mosquitoes are present can be at risk for the spread of zika virus disease.

“A number of travellers infected with zika have entered Europe, but the disease has not been transmitted further, as the mosquito is still inactive.

"With the onset of spring and summer, the risk that zika virus will spread increases.

“Now is the time for countries to prepare themselves to reduce the risk to their populations. As there is no vaccine or treatment for zika virus disease, we must protect the European Region by stopping the disease at its source.

“I urge European countries to act early in a co-ordinated way to: control the mosquitoes, including community engagement in eliminating mosquito breeding sites and planning for insecticide spraying and killing of larvae in case of outbreaks; inform people at risk, especially pregnant women, about preventing mosquito bites; enhance surveillance and ensure laboratory detection of zika virus disease and its neurological complications; and step up research to understand zika virus disease and develop diagnostic tests and vaccines.”