Days Before the Rio Olympics, Bizarre New Twist In the Zika Crisis

Hours after the Yale University says Zika-risk in Rio Olympics is negligible, alarming new twist baffles scientists

After the 1940s, when Zika flared up in Brazil last year, not much was known about the virus. But one thing was clear - like dengue, it spreads only through mosquito bites.

In a couple of months, scientists were bewildered learning that Zika also spreads through the sexual route and can cause microcephaly in pregnant women, babies with under-developed, exceptionally small heads, and short-term paralysis in adults.

But a new piece in the Zika puzzle has completely befuddled scientists - a person in Utah, United States got infected, and no one really knows how! Meaning, this person did not travel to a Zika-endemic area, so there’s no question of a mosquito bite nor is there any history of sexual contact with a prior patient.

It’s unusual. A very unique situation that we haven’t previously seen. There’s a lot we don’t know about Zika virus and we are still doing a lot of investigations to determine whether Zika can be spread from person to person.

Dr. Satish Pillai, Head, Utah-Zika Division, Centres for Disease Control and Prevention