A elderly man who died of Zika virus in Utah appears to have transmitted the infection to a family contact who was a caregiver, USA health officials said on Monday.
Advertisement
Officials said the person “provided care” to the elderly Zika patient, who died recently, possibly from complications of the virus.
“However, there’s a lot we don’t know about Zika virus, and we are still doing a lot of investigation into whether Zika can be spread from person to person through contact with a sick person”, Pillai said. But how the caregiver contracted the infection remains a mystery. Three days after the onset of his symptoms, the man sought care from the same primary care provider who had diagnosed Zika virus infection in his female partner. Suspected Female-to-Male Sexual Transmission of Zika Virus – New York City, 2016. Fourteen have involved sexual transmission and one was the result of a laboratory exposure.
The virus is known to be transmitted by bites from infected mosquitoes, sexual contact or blood transfusions, and can be passed from a mother to a fetus.
County officials are working with SCDHEC to ensure the safety of York County citizens by continuing surveillance programs for Zika and West Nile and identifying areas for mosquito control.
But 14 were people who had not traveled to Zika zones but had sex with someone who had.
That would be a potentially ominous development in the unfolding epidemic.
Mosquitoes have spread the virus widely throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
Zika is a virus primarily spread through mosquito bites, but unlike other mosquito-borne viruses such as dengue, it can also be spread through sex.
Zika infection during pregnancy can cause severe birth defects, including microcephaly.
A baby has been born with a Zika-related birth defect, officials in Harris County said Wednesday. Specific Zika guidelines are provided regarding sexual transmission, pregnancy, clinical evaluation, diagnostic testing and case reporting.
Still, no one is certain that the list of potential transmission sources is complete.
“We do believe this is a unique situation, but again, there is a lot of uncertainty”, Dunn said. During a briefing, CDC experts confirmed that nothing can be truly ruled out in terms of modes of viral transmission. Salt Lake County health department officials said the exact cause of his death has not been determined. That helped make this case highly unusual, said officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CDC team member Dr. Michael Bell, a medical epidemiologist, called it “extremely unlikely” that Zika could be spread through the air. Health officials there also intend to spread the traps across the county.
Advertisement
“It’s exploratory research” and still in early experimental stages, she said. The table is vast and we never want to underestimate possibilities. The family contact cared for him at his home and at the hospital “and could have been exposed to that individual’s sweat or tears or bodily fluids”, Frieden said.
