James O’Neal, speaking after the agency’s monthly board meeting on Tuesday, said that, should the virus start spreading here, the state has teams of people ready to rapidly deploy to areas where cases pop up.
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“However, (he) was known to have had close contact (i.e. kissing and hugging) with the (father) while the (father’s) viral load was found to be very high”.
The elderly person who died with Zika had levels of the virus that were about 100,000 times higher than the average levels reported in other people with Zika.
“In both areas where they have Zika mosquitoes, they warn people to wear mosquito repellent as well as those who live around them so that a mosquito doesn’t bite them and transmit it”, Boston said.
The patient had early neurologic symptoms and suffered moderate memory impairment based on neuropsychological examinations, and these are consistent with symptoms of Zika virus-related encephalitis.
That’s according to the Illinois Department of Public Health, although the number reported in the state most recently by the national Centers for Disease Control is significantly lower.
The Zika virus is caused by a virus transmitted primarily by Aedes mosquitoes, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The CDC says experts still don’t fully understand Zika, which until a year ago was considered a boring and obscure virus that occasionally infected people without any real consequences. Zika has been detected in blood, urine, semen, saliva and breast milk.
With 60 cases reported, IL ranks among the top half of states infected with the disease.
Their cases will be monitored for one month to enable the DOH to determine the extent of local transmission of the Zika virus in the country.
The CDC report cautions other family caregivers that the virus can be spread by blood and bodily fluids of Zika patients.
“Local transmission was confined only within the affected household”.
Meanwhile, Ubial is calling for a strengthened campaign against mosquito-borne diseases in order to prevent the increase in the number of Zika cases in the area. No one else has tested positive.
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Health officials were only able to determine the individual helped provide care to an elderly male family contact, reportedly the person’s father, who contracted the Zika virus overseas.
