Fox 4 News reports the case has been confirmed by Dallas County health officials who say their patient reportedly had sexual contact with an infected person.
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News of the Texas case came a day after the World Health Organization declared an worldwide public health emergency.
Health officials have noted a suspicious link between Zika’s arrival in Brazil a year ago and a surge in the number of babies born with abnormally small heads.
The Zika virus is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is also known to carry the dengue, yellow fever and Chikungunya viruses.
“In another case, Zika virus was found in semen about two weeks after a man had symptoms with Zika virus infection, so that sort of gives you the biologic plausibility of spread”, Schuchat added.
However, the CDC has not investigated how the virus was transmitted.
This 2003 photo provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a female Aedes albopictus mosquito acquiring a blood meal from a human host. The case was originally announced by Dallas County Health and Human Services in Dallas, Texas, but had not been confirmed by CDC. The virus’s spread has been particularly substantial in Brazil.
It’s the first case of the virus being transmitted in the US during the current outbreak of Zika, which has been linked to birth defects in the Americas. “The person later tested positive for Zika, along with their sexual partner, who had not traveled to the area”. The mosquito behind the Zika virus seems to operate like a heat-driven missile of disease.
The county tweeted the infected person had sex with someone who acquired the mosquito-borne virus in Venezuela and who had recently traveled back to the U.S.
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“Houston is a gateway to Central and South America and because of this, we have a unique role and interest in confronting threats like the Zika virus”, he said in a prepared statement. “Through these experiences, the department remains ready to protect residents and visitors from the Zika virus”.
