Oh Good, The Terrifying Mosquito-Transmitted Zika Virus Is Now an STD

The Zika virus is responsible for what the World Health Organization calls a global health crisis. The disease is spread by mosquito bites and can cause terrible birth defects like microencephaly when pregnant women are infected. It's also been linked to the development of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare condition that causes the immune system to attack nerves. 

Until now it has only been a problem transmitted by mosquitos in South American countries. Now a person in the United States has caught the Zika virus on home turf. The good news is, we're probably not flooded with mosquitos that carry the virus (yet), the bad news is that it was sexually transmitted. According to NBC DFW:

The first person in Dallas County has been infected with the Zika virus without traveling outside the U.S., becoming the first person to acquire the virus in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The patient was infected through sexual contact, not through a mosquito bite, according to county health officials.

Nature is getty scary, guys, and who better to put that into words than Twitter. 


via @JasFly


via @mtomasetti