The Czech Health Ministry on Thursday reported the first two confirmed cases of the Zika virus in the country, dpa reported. A woman had been infected with the Zika virus on a trip to the Dominican Republic, while a man had caught the virus on the Caribbean island of Martinique, Health Minister Svatopluk Nemecek said in Prague. Both people displayed flu-like symptoms and a skin rash, Nemecek said. A medical laboratory had confirmed the diagnosis. The woman had not been pregnant, the health minister pointed out, and both people had been treated as outpatients. Zika has been spotted in more than 30 countries, most of them in the Americas. The virus usually causes only mild symptoms including fever. Researchers are currently trying to find out how Zika is connected to malformations in babies, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The virus has been associated with microcephaly, which causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads.
