An elderly Utah resident is the first person in the continental U.S.to die while being infected with the Zika virus.
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Utah authorities refused to release additional information about the patient or where he or she traveled, citing health privacy laws.
Women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant should not have unprotected sex with a man who has recently traveled to an area of the world where Zika virus is circulating, health officials said.
Currently, seven babies have been born with birth defects, and five pregnancies have been lost to Zika, according to CDC records.
As of July 6, a total of 1,132 cases of people who contracted the virus while traveling overseas had been registered in the United States, it said.
The symptoms of Zika include a fever, rash, joint pain, and red eyes.
As of June 29, there have been 49 cases of travel-related Zika in Texas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Zika virus typically causes mild illness with symptoms lasting for several days to a week after being bitten by an infected mosquito.
Zika virus is spread primarily by mosquitoes, but it can also be passed on through sexual contact and blood transfusions, as well as transmitted from a pregnant woman to her fetus. The cases are the first to be reported for those counties.
In fact, in the regions of the continental United States where mosquitoes with capability to cause Zika are found, health officials haven’t found any Zika infections transmitted by local mosquitoes.
Zika is nearly never fatal, but it’s been known to kill people.
As a precaution, the Cincinnati Health Department recommended that travelers returning to the USA from an area with Zika should try to prevent mosquito bites for up to three weeks even if they do not feel sick.
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In other areas of the US where Zika prone mosquitoes are found, officials still have not reported any Zika infections. “Those that have come to term are those with infections occurring later on in pregnancy, when we believe the risk [of birth defects including microcephaly] is lower”. In rare cases, the virus has been linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome, in which the immune system causes damage to nerve cells that sometimes can result in paralysis.
