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French woman contracts Zika through sex

A woman in France has been diagnosed with the Zika virus, with health officials saying she caught it from her partner who had been to Brazil.

Female Aedes aegypti mosquito
A health official says a first case of sexually transmitted Zika virus has been diagnosed in France (AAP)

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Source: AAP


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A health official says a first case of sexually transmitted Zika virus has been diagnosed in France in a woman.

Francois Bourdillon, the director general of the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance, told BFM television on Saturday that "the patient had not travelled, her companion was returning from Brazil" where he had been infected with the Zika virus.

He said both were "doing well".

Zika is primarily spread by mosquito bites, and transmission through sex is considered rare.

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week two cases of sexual transmission of Zika from male travellers to their sexual partners had been confirmed and four others are probable amid an investigation into 14 potential cases.


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