Zika virus infects Danish tourist

A Danish tourist has been infected by the Zika virus after visiting southern and central America, Danish hospital officials say, but authorities said Wednesday it was not the first case in Europe.

In a statement Tuesday, the Aarhus University Hospital said the patient ran a fever, had a headache and muscle aches and was discovered as having the virus on Tuesday.

Thehospital released no further details about the patient but it says that there is little risk of it spreading in Denmark because the mosquito carrying the virus isn't found in the country.

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Romit Jain, from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in Stockholm, says there have been confirmed cases of imported Zika virus infections in Germany and Britain.

A Zika virus case was also confirmed in Sweden last summer, said Sara Rorbecker of the Swedish Public Health Agency. She said the patient a woman of non-fertile age had contracted the virus when travelling, adding that there was nothing "dramatic" about the case.

Zika virus is not a notifiable disease in the European Union, meaning that EU countries are not required to report cases to the ECDC. Therefore, there is wide variation on reporting by member states.

The Zika virus, discovered decades ago in Africa, was long thought to be more of a nuisance illness, with symptoms generally much milder than its cousin dengue.

However, amid a large Zika outbreak in Brazil, researchers began reporting an increase in microcephaly babies born with abnormally small heads.

Meanwhile, Venezuela's medical community is demandingthe government publish statistics about the Zika virus and warningit could already be alarmingly widespread.

Venezuela's Ministry of Health has so far limited itself toconfirming the presence of the mosquito-borne illness in the SouthAmerican country. The ministry stopped publishing data on allepidemic diseases a year ago.

Former Health Minister Jose Felix Oletta says it is unacceptablethat the government wait so long to release Zika statistics andbegin working to contain the virus.

Non-government organizations have reported a sharp increase inunusual fevers in the country.

Medical professionals in thehighly polarized country tend tolean toward the opposition. They blame the socialist administrationfor widespread shortages of medical supplies.

On Tuesday, the opposition-controlled Congress declared Venezuelawas in a humanitarian health crisis.