PRAGUE (Sputnik) – According to Cislak, the woman was admitted to a hospital in the western city of Presov on Thursday after returning from a trip to South America. The patient reportedly presented with flu-like symptoms.
"Her blood tests have proved the presence of the Zika virus," the health minister said, as quoted by the Aktuality news portal.
The tests were studied in a special virology laboratory in Hamburg, according to the portal.
The mosquito-borne virus is suspected of having strong links to microcephaly — severe brain damage among newborns characterized by abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains.
The current Zika outbreak originated in Brazil in the spring of 2015 before spreading across Latin America and gaining widespread media attention as confirmations of the first cases emerged in Europe and the United States in recent months.
At present, there is no available vaccine against the Zika virus.
