There are now no known cases of a person in the United States who has contracted the Zika virus while living in the country.
Advertisement
The man, from Salt Lake County in Utah, was caring for a dying elderly male patient with the virus. But the individual had “helped provide care for the deceased patient”.
Dunn said Aedes mosquitoes are not thought to be established in Utah.
Officials are continuing to warn people to take precautions when traveling to Zika-affected areas.
No known cases of mosquito-borne Zika virus infections have been reported in the United States.
The Center for Disease Control recommends women who are pregnant not travel to areas with Zika due to the high risk of birth defects, particularly microcephaly. The level of virus was more than 100,000 times higher than seen in other samples of infected people, according to the CDC. In rare cases, infection leads to a potentially deadly complication called Guillain-Barre syndrome, in which the peripheral nervous system comes under attack, causing temporary partial paralysis.
“It’s too early to make a clear statement about what could have happened”, said Mike Bell, MD, a CDC medical epidemiologist.
There is “no evidence of any risk of Zika virus transmission among the general public”, she added.
But Friden described the transmission of the virus as “unusual”.
Dr. Angela Dunn, deputy state epidemiologist at the Utah Department of Health, speaks during a news conference Monday, July 18, 2016, in Salt Lake City.
Evidence of Zika infection has been found in number of other body fluids, including saliva, urine, semen, vaginal fluid and even breast milk.
Health officials are also investigating whether mosquitoes might have played a role. Scientists are investigating whether it is also present in sweat and tears. People usually do not get sick enough to go to the hospital. There have been no reports of local mosquito transmission of the disease in the United States at this time. But none was caused by local mosquitoes, the CDC said. However, the case is being described as “unique” because the family contact did not appear to contract the virus through the bite of an infected mosquito or sexual transmission.
“We know that the patient had contact with the deceased patient while the deceased patient was very ill”.
The man became the first Zika-related fatality in continental USA when he died in late June. The first is by being bitten by the Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus strain of mosquitoes, which are known to carry the virus. The rest tend to experience only mild problems – mild fever, skin rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, or headaches – that last for several days.
A CDC emergency response team (CERT) with experts in infection control, virology, mosquito control, disease investigation, and health communications, are now in Utah. All of them were contracted by travel to countries where the virus is active. All previously reported cases of sexually transmitted Zika infection have been spread from men.
Advertisement
The latest patient has fully recovered after caring for an older man who had become infected after traveling overseas, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Protection (CDC). Nationally, there have been over 1300 reported cases, all believed to be travel-related.
