The case was confirmed in a person who recently traveled to a country with active transmission of the Zika virus.
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Doctors have had to send patients’ blood samples to public health labs in their state or to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The first case of Zika in Orange County was reported in March when a Costa Man man in his 40s picked up the virus while traveling in Central America, then returned home.
A 70-year-old man living in Puerto Rico died in February from severe thrombocytopenia, having a low blood platelet count, after becoming infected with Zika.
“This demonstrates that, as with Guillain Barre Syndrome cases, that there can be severe manifestations that result from Zika virus infection”, the CDC’s Tyler Sharp told NBC News. On Thursday, April 28, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized Quest Diagnostics to offer the first commercial test for the Zika virus in the United States. He said it’s so respectable, he wanted to hear their ideas in case mosquitoes start spreading Zika locally.
The virus is known to cause the brain defect microcephaly, and is blamed for a recent surge in cases of malformed babies in Brazil. Colombia reported three similar deaths. The only existing method for determining if a person is infected with Zika is through a network of laboratories approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Sharp said the man was diagnosed with a rare Zika complication known as immune thrombocytopenic purpura or ITP, an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system attacks blood cells, called platelets.
When symptoms are present, the most common are fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis (red eyes).
Puerto Rico has a population of 3.5 million people. Zika has also been linked to other severe birth defects and with stillbirth. That means people who receive negative results may not necessarily be out of the woods, and further testing could be required if symptoms persist.
Of them, 65 are pregnant women.
Ana Rius, Puerto Rico’s health secretary, just announced the first Zika-related death on the island. According to the state, only about one out of five people infected with Zika are symptomatic.
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The territory has the mosquito that spreads the virus, and has been hit with massive outbreaks of other mosquito-borne diseases like dengue fever and chikungunya. State health officials are expected to report new data Friday on Zika infection.
