The French minister of social affairs, health and women’s rights, Marisol Touraine said on Saturday that the infected woman is not pregnant, therefore recovering well while at low risk of any complications.
The Zika virus, which was until recently limited to a handful of countries in equatorial Africa and Asia, first appeared in Brazil in May. Since then, an estimated 1.5 million people are believed to have been infected in the country, and a total of 46 nations have reported some level of Zika infection.
Experts believe babies born to mothers infected with Zika while pregnant are susceptible to microcephaly, a congenital condition that causes abnormally small heads and hampers brain development.
Director of France’s Institute for Public Health Surveillance (IVS), Francois Bourdillon, further stated in an interview with the local BFM TV broadcaster that the infected subject was the nation’s “first confirmed indigenous case of [Zika] transmission.”
“This was a woman who had never traveled. Her partner had come from Brazil, so she was tested,” Bourdillon added, noting that both Zika-infected patients were doing well.
Denmark, Germany and Britain have all reported cases of the disease in tourists returning from affected areas. Zika virus is not deemed a notifiable disease by the EU and so countries are not required to report cases to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, so the accuracy of reporting of cases is variable.
The case in Paris is the first publicly reported case of transmission in Europe, where the spread of the disease is lessened because mosquitos are inactive in winter.
However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned earlier this month that European nations should prepare for the possibility that the disease will spread in the warmer months.
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