During an epidemiological update onzika virus epidemic, the Minister of Social Affairs and Health, Marisol Touraine, announced that 20 pregnant women have tested positive for the virus. “These women are the subject of reinforced monitoring, no malformation has been detected to date” she clarified. Two cases of Guillain Barré syndrome (a neurological syndrome which can lead to paralysis) were also taken care of, one of them is still in intensive care at the CHU of Fort-de-France.
According to this latest epidemiological assessment, the zika epidemic is now installed in Martinique and Guyana, with respectively 2,287 and 245 suggestive cases, of which nearly a hundred have been the subject of biological confirmation. 10 indigenous cases have also been confirmed in Guadeloupe and 1 case in Saint Martin.
In mainland France, 9 imported cases of zika have been taken care of since the start of the year. One of them, back in France after a stay in an area affected by the virus, presented a neurological form of the infection. “I would like to remind you that the current winter season is not conducive to the development of mosquitoes in metropolitan France and that there is therefore no epidemic risk today in France.“added the Minister.
Recommendations for pregnant women
Returning to the controversy generated by his recommendation to pregnant women to postpone possible trips to the Antilles or Guyana, Marisol Touraine stressed that the recommendation applied to all the countries affected by the epidemic and not only to the French departments of America. . “My wish is not to alarm. My responsibility as Minister of Health is to inform, to protect pregnant women in particular” she added.
Regarding the possibility of transmission of the virus through sexual intercourse, the Minister echoed the opinion of the National Professional Council of Obstetrics Gynecology, which recommends “the use of condoms for women who are pregnant or of childbearing age in endemic areas, or whose partner is suspected of being infected”.
“I urgently seized this morning the High Council of Public Health so that it confirms to me, in the next few days, these recommendations for France” she added.
Find out more: our dossier on the epidemic caused by the zika virus
