Texas confirms first locally transmitted Zika case

Texas health officials said there are no other cases of suspected local transmission at this time, but vowed to continue surveillance.

CDC officials said Zika has been diagnosed in a resident of Brownsville – which borders Mexico at the state’s southernmost tip – without any other known risk factors for contracting the disease, such as sexual transmission or travel to an area where the virus is widespread. As of November 23, Florida has 238 locally acquired Zika cases on record and 170 cases of Zika virus in pregnant women, according to the Florida Health Department.

Officials in Cameron County said Monday the first locally acquired case of a Zika virus infection was found in Cameron County, highlighting the heightened risk of such infection.

Cameron County, the state health department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are investigating the case further to pinpoint where the infection occurred.

The CDC has been working with Texas and local health departments to conduct drills on the kind of testing and investigation that need to be done in response to local transmission.

The mosquito-borne virus causes birth defects in new-borns whose mother’s were infected.

A series of brain and skull malformations are associated with Zika, including a condition called microcephaly, in which babies are born with unusually small heads.

However, with the exception of the most recent case of the Brownsville woman, the other cases were all contracted through travel.

The findings from last week, released by USA and Brazilian researchers, underscore the need for continuing evaluation of newborns with possible exposure to Zika in the womb, the CDC said. The resident is not pregnant. This includes using mosquito repellant, wearing long sleeves, keeping windows closed, using air conditioning and eliminating standing water.

Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the state health department in Texas, said the woman had fallen ill and gone to her doctor, who ordered the Zika test. Van Deusen said six members of the woman’s household were also tested and do not have the virus.

There is no treatment or vaccine for Zika, although research efforts are underway to develop one.

The news comes just over a week after the World Health Organization declared Zika was no longer a “public health emergency”, indicating that the disease was now a threat it would be fighting long term, like malaria or yellow fever.

Dr. Peter Hotez, dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, has said for months that Zika has likely been spreading quietly in Texas, in part because the federal government was late in providing funding for active screening of patients.