Fresh Zika case in Rome, now 9 in Italy

(ANSA) - Rome, February 5 - A fresh case of contagion by the Zika virus has been found in a person just back from Brazil, Rome medical sources said Friday, raising the total of cases in Italy to nine. Earlier a fourth case was found in Veneto. The patient, who had returned from a trip to the Dominican Republic, was treated in a Venice hospital and is well, regional health councillor Luca Colletto said. Previously Colletto said the other three cases were in Treviso, Padua and Vicenza and all concerned people who had returned from trips to countries where the virus is most widespread, in South America and the Caribbean. "There is no cause for alarm because the Zika virus has been monitored in Veneto since 2010, along with Chijkungunya and Dengue, both in humans and the mosquitoes which are its vectors so that, if it presents, we are able to treat it effectively," Colletto said. The World Health Organisation declared Zika an emergency February 1 and on Friday the United Nations said contraception and abortion services should be boosted in affected countries.