The health department announced Friday that the unnamed resident, who traveled outside the country to where mosquitoes are known to carry the virus, died in late June.
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Health officials declined to release further details about the victim’s death, including where the victim had travelled.
Earlier in April the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said first United States of America death from the virus was in Puerto Rico. The statement confirms that there is no threat of anyone contracting a Zika virus infection in Utah – and adds that the infected person had traveled to a region known to harbor mosquitoes that spread the virus.
“While Congress continues to play partisan games with public health, more pregnant patients have been infected with Zika”, Legacy CEO Katy Caldwell said. “Jurisdictions can use these funds to identify and investigate a possible outbreak, to coordinate a response across all levels of government, to identify and connect families affected by Zika to community services”, Haynes said. According to the health department, there 43 pregnant women in Florida who have contracted the virus this year. The executive director of the Salt Lake County Health Department, Gary Edwards, stated that health officials who were reviewing death certificates, discovered the potential case, and it was confirmed by lab tests.
Almost 80 percent of people infected with the virus will have no symptoms.
Symptoms of Zika include a fever, rash and joint pain.
But, health experts have warned that local transmission cases are likely to occur in the coming weeks during summer mosquito season.
This is the first confirmed Zika-related death in the continental United States.
There is now no vaccine or treatment for Zika.
There has only been one reported case of Zika virus infection in Sonoma County.
There have been no reported cases of locally transmitted Zika in continental US. There are no documented cases where a woman has transmitted the virus to a man; the Zika virus is transmitted from human to human via semen.
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Doctors say the highest group at risk when it comes to Zika are pregnant women though its still unknown at what phase of the woman’s pregnancy the fetus is most vulnerable.
