The Centers for Disease Control has released a new county map of the United States indicating where individuals may live who potentially can or will travel to areas where the Zika virus is most prevalent.
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Officials said they would not be able to release the resident’s name or her travel history due to health privacy laws.
The individual is the second known Zika-associated death in this country, as a man carrying the virus died from complications in Puerto Rico in late April.
Agency spokesman Benjamin Haynes said the woman, who was not named, was studying the virus, which is linked to serious birth defects and has been declared a global health emergency. However, the virus has been being transmitted by mosquitoes in at least 60 nations, more than half in the Americas, according to worldwide health officials.
This US Olympic team study could help answer some of the questions surrounding Zika, especially the relative risks of asymptomatic versus symptomatic infections, and how long the virus remains present in bodily fluids. A CDC spokesman told The Guardian that it’s still unclear if, or how, Zika contributed to the person’s death.
American authorities have confirmed that the death of a Utah resident last month is the first Zika-related death in the United States.
The state’s only mosquito breed that could carry Zika is the Aedes albopictus, or the Asian tiger mosquito, but the positive case does not change the county’s mosquito program, Damsker noted. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services says the two most recent cases are non-pregnant females who had traveled to Jamaica and to Haiti. Laboratory studies also confirmed the presence of Zika virus in the blood, tissue, brains and amniotic fluid of fetuses and babies diagnosed with microcephaly.
An elderly Utah women infected with Zika has died.
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“In addition to Zika, travellers need to be mindful of other diseases found around the world, including mosquito-borne illnesses like Dengue fever, malaria, and chikungunya”. Symptoms of the condition, which can also be caused by other viruses, can include temporary paralysis. Mosquitoes spread the virus.
