Are we doing enough to protect ourselves from Zika?

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VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Canada’s chief public health officer confirmed yesterday that the country’s first sexually transmitted Zika virus case has been detected in Ontario.

But the news doesn’t surprise BC’s provincial health officer.

“I think we’ve known for some that Zika virus is present in semen for a number of months. The recommendations for returning travellers from the Zika area, if they’re with a partner who could potentially get pregnant, is either to abstain or wear a condom,” says Dr. Perry Kendall, adding Zika-infected areas are already dealing with that aspect.

“The majority of cases in the countries that are currently affected by ongoing outbreaks would be of course from mosquitoes. But sexual transmission does appear to be happening as well though at a lower frequency.”

He says we don’t need major changes to how we’re combating or protecting against the virus right now.

“Unless there was a significant climate change, we’re not at risk for mosquitoes spreading [Zika], certainly not at the present time,” explains Kendall.

Canadian mosquitoes aren’t believed to carry the virus, but Kendall tells us scientists at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg are still working to confirm that none of our domestic species can, in fact, spread Zika.

He says as far as prevention goes, we’re doing all we can right now to stop it from spreading within Canada.

“The Canadian Blood Services have guidelines which are very precautionary to make sure the virus is kept out of the blood supply and there are also recommendations for tissue and organ donation so that people coming back from Zika-affected countries are asked to delay their donation.”

But Kendall adds other countries — particularly those in Latin America — need to do a better job of controlling outbreaks there.

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