The Salt Lake County officials said Utah doesn’t have the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that carry Zika virus so they are not anxious it would or could spread there. The Salt Lake County health department says the woman did have an underlying health condition and had traveled this year to an area of the world where mosquitoes are known to spread Zika virus.
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On April 29, the CDC had announced the first Zika-related death in Puerto Rico, a United States territory. “Jurisdictions can use these funds to identify and investigate a possible outbreak, to coordinate a response across all levels of government, to identify and connect families affected by Zika to community services”, Haynes said. The woman, whose identity has not been disclosed, died late last month, confirmed authorities from the Salt Lake County Health Department.
There have been no reported cases of Zika virus contracted from a mosquito bite in Missouri.
“It’s summer and people are going to be traveling – we want them to be smart and safe about it”, Holbrook said. Experts recommend people coming back from infected areas should not have sex for at least eight weeks after returning.
The District Director of Health tells FOX19 NOW mosquitoes become infected when they bite a person already infected with the virus. Cincinnati’s first case of the virus was announced less than a week later.
The death of the woman in Utah follows the first death from Zika in Puerto Rico in April as a result of severe internal bleeding due to lack of platelets in the blood.
Almost 540 pregnant women in the United States and territories have Zika, which is proven to cause the devastating birth defect microcephaly and is suspected to cause other neurological defects, too.
The news of the first death caused by a Zika virus infection comes just a few days after the U.S. Senate failed to pass a $1.1 billion proposal for funding Zika virus prevention measures.
If you are traveling overseas, first check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s travel page (http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/zika-information) to see if Zika is spreading in your planned destination. Zika virus is now being spread in Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, the Pacific Islands, and parts of Africa.
Zika can be sexually transmitted, but health officials are most concerned about pregnant mothers who get the virus because it can cause serious birth defects, including microcephaly, which is characterized by small heads and brain damage in newborns.
Zika is nearly never fatal, but it’s been known to kill people.
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In fact, in the regions of the continental United States where mosquitoes with capability to cause Zika are found, health officials haven’t found any Zika infections transmitted by local mosquitoes.
