SC public health officials on Friday confirmed the first case of Zika virus in the state. She said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 16 confirmed cases in the commonwealth and another 128 pending test results.
Advertisement
The country the patient traveled to is not being released, but DHEC says that it is a country where the Zika virus is active.
According to the Associated Press, a 70-year-old man who had been infected with Zika died in February from a drop in blood platelets, the part of the blood that is responsible for forming clots. He died after suffering internal bleeding.
A patient infected with the virus developed a severe blood-clotting disease called, thrombocytopenia, that led to his death, according to the CDC.
The first official Zika-related death in Puerto Rico was confirmed on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), being this the first one to happen in the United States. The report said 683 cases had been seen in Puerto Rico from November through April 14.
The US has reported its first death linked to Zika virus, while the Food and Drug Administration approved the first commercial test for the disease under an emergency use authorization.
The most frequently reported signs and symptoms were rash (74 percent), myalgia (68 percent), headache (63 percent), fever (63 percent), and arthralgia (63 percent).
Puerto Rico has a population of 3.5 million people. While the virus doesn’t often require an infected person be hospitalized, it can be unsafe during pregnancy.
Puerto Rico has 683 confirmed cases of the Zika virus, including 65 pregnant women with symptoms of the virus and one death, US health officials said on Friday.
Puerto Rico has been facing a widespread Zika outbreak for several months. The virus causes only a mild and brief illness, at worst, in most people. Five had Guillan-Barre, a paralyzing syndrome that can follow many different infections and that’s now being noted as Zika infects hundreds of thousands of people in the Americas.
The San Antonio Metropolitan Health District announced that another area person has contracted the Zika virus.
Advertisement
The CDC is encouraging people, particularly in Puerto Rico, to continue preventing mosquito bites by using repellents, wearing long-sleeved shirts and trousers, and ensuring that windows in their homes are shut tight.
