MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/. Russia’s first citizen who was infected with Zika virus has been discharged from hospital and her health condition is satisfactory, an official at a Russian epidemiology center said on Friday.
"Now we can definitely say that she does not pose a threat to others," said Viktor Maleyev, the deputy head of the central scientific research institute of epidemiology.
The 36-year-old Russian woman was diagnosed with Zika virus after returning from a trip to the Dominican Republic in early February. A few days later she developed fever and rashes. The family members who contacted with her had no Zika virus.
"We made her stay here especially to make sure that the virus is no more detected," Maleyev said.
All necessary measures were taken in regard to the plane on which the infected Russian citizen flew home, and there was no threat to the health of other passengers, Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-Being said earlier.
Zika virus was isolated in 1947 in the Zika forest of Uganda. Last May, it began to spread rapidly in Brazil, then gaining ground in other countries of South and North America. Health officials report the virus has penetrated 21 out of 55 countries in the Western Hemisphere.
The virus, transmitted by mosquitos, causes high temperature, pink eye, headaches and malaise, joint pains, sometimes nausea and stomach pains.
The virus, which has no preventative vaccine, often shows no signs of symptoms in adults but it can be extremely dangerous to unborn children. Thousands of women infected with Zika virus have given birth to babies affected by microcephaly and other defects.