First suspected case of Zika virus in Slovakia

The Slovak Public Health Authority has reported the first case of a patient suspected of being infected with the Zika virus in Slovakia. The patient in question is a woman hospitalised in Prešov, where she was accepted on Wednesday. The woman returned from South America with symptoms of an unspecified virus without serious development. "Samples of urine and blood were taken from the patient on Thursday in order to identify the presence of Zika virus," said the hospital's spokesperson Renáta Cenková, adding that the samples are now to be analysed in cooperation with a laboratory in Hamburg, Germany. Cenková wasn't able to tell when the test results could come in. Slovaks that have visited countries affected by Zika are prohibited from donating blood 28 days after leaving these countries, the National Transfusion Service (NTS) reports on its website. The concerned areas are countries in South and Central America, the Caribbean and also Cape Verde, about 570 km off the coast of Western Africa. The Foreign and European Affairs Ministry recommends women reconsider planned journeys to all affected areas. Zika is a virus transmitted by mosquitoes, specifically the yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti). The species isn't spread in Europe, according to the health inspectors. According to available information, in up to 80 percent of the cases of infection there are no clinical symptoms and the infected person sometimes doesn't know they have the virus. Approximately 20 percent of the infected experience its symptoms. Symptoms are usually mild and last two to seven days, among the main ones are increased temperature, aches of joints and also swelling of mainly smaller joints on hands and feet and also general flu-like symptoms. The incubation period is 3-12 days. The virus, for which there is no available treatment yet, is suspected of causing incomplete brain development in babies.