The first adult death in the continental USA potentially related to the Zika virus was reported on Friday in Salt Lake City.
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Laboratory confirmation of the virus did not come back until after the individual had died, according to Gary Edwards, executive director of the Salt Lake County Department of Health, who said the department learned of the Zika-related death after a review of the death certificate.
Her exact cause of death is unknown, but she did test positive for the virus.
“We are aware that Zika contributed to the cause of death, but we do not know if it was the only cause”, officer Dagmar Vitek said in the news conference.
A Salt Lake County resident has died after getting the Zika virus, according to the Salt Lake County Health Department.
USA health officials announced Friday the first death that resulted from an infection by that Zika virus in the continental United States.
A private lab confirmed the sample, according to Tarrant County Public Health.
Officials do not believe mosquitoes carrying the virus are in the Greater Cincinnati area, but they do expect to see cases from those who have traveled to areas where the Zika virus is found in mosquitoes. But it can cause severe birth defects in the fetuses and babies of women who are infected during their pregnancies.
As of early July, there were 35 confirmed cases of Zika in Pennsylvania so far this year and 1,133 in the continental United States.
There is now no vaccine or treatment for Zika.
The main risk is to pregnant women.
The Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Health Departments set up traps Thursday to test mosquitoes for the Zika virus.
Health officials said the Riverside County man who was infected had traveled to the Caribbean.
Dr. Andrew Pavia, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Utah says most diseases affect some groups of people worse than others.
It’s spread mainly through the bite of a tropical mosquito, the Aedes aegpyti. Researchers have concluded that prenatal Zika infection can cause microcephaly and other brain disorders. Never before have birth defects been linked to an illness spread by mosquitoes.
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The case in Lee is one of six new travel-related cases statewide reported Monday by the state Department of Health.
