Health officials, including the City of Lubbock Department of Health, have warned of the spread of a mosquito-borne virus.
The Zika virus has been transmitted in 14 countries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To read the list produced by the Pan American Health Organization, click here.
“It is transmittable by mosquitos. There has been no transmission in the Unites States. All of the transmission is occurring in more tropical areas in Central and South America,” said Katherine Wells, Director of Public Health for the City of Lubbock.
Wells said while there have been reported cases in the U.S., there have not been any reported cases of Zika virus transmission, meaning that the people infected with zika became infected abroad and then entered the country.
The biggest risk, as new research develops, aims toward pregnant women, Wells said.
“Researchers are just starting to look at this virus but they’re starting to see some association between pregnant women that were infected with Zika during their pregnancy and some association with birth defects of those babies,” she said. “That hasn’t been proven, but they think that there is a likely cause between the two.”
“The most important thing is that we haven’t had any cases here,” she added. “The research is still very new with this, but they believe that once somebody is symptomatic, that they are infectious for about a week.”
“If you’ve traveled to those countries, and have come back and think you’re sick, you need to go see a doctor,” Wells said.
Wells said the mosquito that carries the virus, the Aedes mosquito, is generally seen in Lubbock in the summer months.
“We would have to have two things. We’d have to have people infected, and then a high concentration of the mosquitos that are able to carry that. Not every mosquito carries the Zika virus. It’s only specific species of mosquitos. So you’d have to have both of those, and it’s really more of a tropical disease,” Wells said. “Some of the CDC experts that I’ve… heard from, aren’t thinking large epidemics in the U.S. are a possibility.”
To read the CDC’s travel alert, click here.
