Full Coverage: Zika virus outbreak

A New York City woman infected her male partner with Zika virus through sex, the first time female-to-male transmission of the germ has been documented.

On his flight from Mexico back to the Vatican in February, Pope Francis made an unexpected comment about the Zika virus, saying that the outbreak — blamed for serious birth defects around the world — may justify the use of contraceptives.

Experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Infection are investigating a worrisome case of Zika virus transmission after the caregiver of a Zika-infected patient who died was found to be infected as well.

Researchers modeling the rampant spread of the Zika virus say that, like a wildfire consuming a parched landscape, the epidemic that has caused a plague of birth defects in Brazil is already showing signs of slowing and is likely to largely burn itself out in three years.

President Barack Obama says a vaccine for the Zika virus could be developed in “fairly short order” if Congress acts quickly to pass a bill to prevent the spread of the disease.

Just five months after the Zika virus was declared a global public health emergency, a scientific team’s feverish efforts to create a vaccine against the viral threat have borne promising fruit: With a single shot of either of two different types of vaccine, experimental mice gained near-total immunity to Zika for at least two months.

As Dr. Abdulla Al-Khan pulled the baby from the womb of her mother, he was overcome with emotion.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is changing the way it counts Zika cases — a move that triples the reported number of pregnant women with possible infections from the virus.

Under mounting pressure to provide additional funding to combat an anticipated Zika virus outbreak in the U.S., congressional Republicans have begun to move legislation to approve more money.

Less than two years after the Ebola epidemic set off a scramble for money to contain that deadly virus, state and local health officials around the country are rushing to prepare for Zika outbreaks this spring and summer.

The U.S.

Confirming the worst fears of many pregnant women in the United States and Latin America, U.S. health officials said Wednesday there is no longer any doubt the Zika virus causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads and other severe brain defects.

The Zika virus transmitted by mosquito bites definitely causes severe birth defects, the Centers for Disease Control announced Wednesday.

As summer approaches, some worry that warmer weather could attract mosquitoes and bring the fast-spreading Zika virus stateside.

A man from Costa Mesa was infected with the Zika virus while traveling in Central America in January, officials confirmed Thursday.

The Zika virus sweeping across South America may be only one of several long-dormant infections that will resurface in coming years because of climate change and deforestation, says a Johns Hopkins University neurologist now leading research efforts in Colombia, one of the countries hardest hit by the disease.

The U.S.

Google is now involved in the fight against the Zika virus.

During a seven-month outbreak of Zika virus infection that ended in April 2014, health officials in French Polynesia noticed an uptick in the number of patients showing up at hospitals with a rare but dangerous constellation of symptoms known as Guillain-Barre syndrome.

A killer is on the loose in the Americas, blamed for dozens of deaths and thousands of critical injuries.

The threat of the Zika virus should be “way down” by the time Brazil hosts the 2016 Olympic Games in August, a leading health official said Friday.

After ending a dramatic tour of Mexico, Pope Francis on Thursday seemed to open the door for limited use of artificial contraception, long prohibited by the Roman Catholic Church, to prevent pregnancies at risk from the disastrous, fast-spreading Zika virus.

Responding to rising fears about the Zika virus outbreak in Brazil, the medical director of the International Olympic Committee said there has been no discussion of postponing or canceling the upcoming Summer Games in Rio de Janerio.

Public health officials in Yolo County confirmed Wednesday that a resident there who recently returned from international travel contracted the Zika virus, the latest of several confirmed cases in California.

The Zika virus, thought to be responsible for a surge in birth defects in Brazil, has been found inside the abnormally small brain of an aborted fetus at roughly 29 weeks of gestation, a team of researchers reported Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The threat that fear of Zika could lead tourists, or even athletes, to stay away from the 2016 Olympics has been added to a list of problems for organizers to resolve before the Rio games in August.

As public health officials and epidemiologists race to understand the Zika virus, doctors in the United States are struggling to counsel patients and ease their fears amid a flood of constantly changing information.

Concerns about the spread of the Zika virus in Brazil continue to cast a shadow over the upcoming 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

As mosquitoes buzzed about on her veranda one recent evening, Maureen Coetzee didn’t reach for bug spray or a swatter.

The Zika virus headlines may seem disturbingly familiar — with good reason.

Travelers 60 years or older are less likely than young travelers to cancel their travel plans because of fear over the Zika virus, according to a survey released Monday.

Responding to a news report on Monday, U.S.

President Obama is asking Congress for more than $1.8 billion in emergency funding to help fight the Zika virus.

It’s been a rough year for Andreza Souza’s home-based clothing business.

Zika virus, a disease once only found in Africa and Southeast Asia, has spread rapidly into the Americas, bringing with it a fear of birth defects.

Though there’s only one confirmed case of Zika virus in Los Angeles County, several more people who might be infected are being tested for the illness, public health officials said Wednesday.

Texas officials on Tuesday reported the first case of the Zika virus being sexually transmitted in the U.S. by an infected traveler returning from South America since the disease’s rapid spread there over the last year.

Six people in California have been diagnosed with the Zika virus in the past three years, state public health officials said Monday.

The World Health Organization declared Monday that explosive growth of the mosquito-borne Zika virus — which has been spreading rapidly in the Americas and may be linked to birth defects — constitutes an international public health emergency, signaling a new phase in the global effort to battle the virus.

What is Zika?

It is entirely reasonable to be concerned about what the World Health Organization is calling the “explosive” spread of Zika virus across the Americas.

With the Zika virus spreading quickly across the Americas -- including Brazil where the 2016 Summer Games will be held -- the International Olympic Committee on Friday sent a memo to its member nations with advice on safeguarding against the mosquito-borne outbreak.

Declaring a threat of “alarming proportions,” the head of the World Health Organization warned Thursday that the Zika virus is “spreading explosively” across the Americas and could infect as many as 4 million people.

For Gleicy Oliveira, the public health warnings about the Zika virus came too late.