Zika infection locally transmitting in Texas after Florida - report

• comments
• 
• 

Zika infection is detected in a woman on Monday in Texas. Reports say that the infection is locally transmitted. Now, Texas is second state to have a case of locally transmitted Zika virus. It is believed that mosquitos are directly responsible.

The patient who is a woman had not traveled to any place of Zika outbreak. She lives in Brownsville, Texas. She is not pregnant, which is the most significant thing to know about a woman patient because a fetus can suffer from serious brain defects if the mother is infected with Zika, reports Counsel Heal.

The infection was detected through a urine test and not a blood test which ensures the health experts that the virus cannot spread from her to other persons through a mosquito.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conserve that the primary reason of Zika spreading among people is caused by the bite of an infected Aedes aegypti species mosquito.

Another possible reason of infection spread is through sex. An infected person can infect his or her partner with Zika if he or she is basically infected by the virus.

Several Latin American States have witnessed spread of Zika. Top of these are Mexico, Brazil, Honduras and Colombia.

According to LA Times the first case of Zika by mosquito bite was detected in Florida where 4 cases of virus transmission were reported this year in July. Whereas in Puerto Rico 31,944 locally contracted cases of Zika are reported to CDC.

Dr. John Hellerstedt, Texas Department of State Health Services commissioner finds it not a worrisome situation because he believes that the virus will not spread in Texas. But, he asks people to take preventive measure from the mosquito bites. This is especially important for the people living in places that are warmer in winter.

The wide use of air conditioners and placing window screen will prevent the virus from spreading far and wide in Texas.

The new case of Zika is not a shock to the health experts because the news of Zika virus detection in the South had reached in Texas. They have been making certain preparations for the expected infection!

Just four months back Zika was transmitted locally in Florida. The adult people infected by the virus get little harm but put the unborn child of an infected mother at a high risk to suffer from microcephaly (having a small head and brain).

A child was born with microcephaly in Texas this August but died after the birth because of the complications caused by the abnormality.

Texas is increasing surveillance of the local areas and trapping mosquitoes for testing where infection was detected like the Brownsville area.

Zika virus has no cure. The infected patients are treated by rest, pain killers and hydration.