MOSCOW. KAZINFORM - Russia's federal consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor confirmed on Tuesday the third case of the Zika virus in the country.

"Today we have the third infected person in Moscow. He has also come back from the Dominican Republic (like two others)," Rospotrebnadzor head Anna Popova told reporters.

She said there were two suspected Zika cases in Russia but the diagnosis was not confirmed.

Zika virus was isolated in 1947 in the Zika forest of Uganda. Last May, it began to spread rapidly in Brazil, then gaining ground in other countries of South and North America. Health officials report the virus penetrating 21 of 55 countries across the western hemisphere.

Medical professionals note special concern for infected pregnant women, whose children risk developing brain-damaging microcephaly.