On Tuesday morning, state officials confirmed the death of a newborn infant girl in Harris County as the first Zika-related death in Texas. The baby’s mother had traveled to Latin America during her pregnancy, where she was infected as well as her baby in the womb. Texas now has 99 cases of Zika virus disease, including the newborn who died as well as another infant out of Harris County.

“That was very disturbing news. It’s tragic for the family, for the relatives, friends, community, but it brings back home that for a pregnant person, Zika is a serious and potentially devastating disease,” said Dr. Lawrence Martinelli, Chief medical Informatics Officer and an Infectious Diseases Physician at Covenant Health.

In Lubbock, there remains only one travel-related case of the Zika virus, but local health officials want to emphasize how crucial it is that the public takes care of themselves.

“First question to ask do you need to go [to Zika-affected areas] at all? The CDC has issued an advisory that if you’re pregnant, no travel unless it’s absolutely essential to an area where there’s Zika transmission.”

“There really is a risk with women being infected with Zika and then we’re seeing poor outcomes when the baby’s born,” said Katherine Wells, director of public health for the City of Lubbock. “And if they need to travel for some reason, they should really speak to their healthcare provider first about the risks, and if the health provider says ‘yes go ahead and go,’ then it’s very important that they wear mosquito repellant and avoid any contact with any mosquitos in those areas.”

Of the symptoms exhibited in babies, a shrunken head, microcephaly, has been the most prevalent, but that isn’t to say it stops at that.

“There’s also some thoughts that Zika infection during pregnancy can cause some other birth outcomes that might not be readily apparent like problems with vision or hearing or a learning disability,” said Wells.

“It’s not a 100% thing that if you have Zika your baby’s going to have a problem, but there’s the risk that there are so the obstetricians will follow you very very closely and watch the baby to see if there’s anything there that shouldn’t be,” said Dr. Martinelli. 

In the event that an individual must travel to an area affected by the Zika virus, local health officials say they must be screened and tested for the virus immediately. Wells says the City of Lubbock’s health department says when those tests are needed, they will work with the individual’s health care provider to determine what must happen next.

“If they’re currently symptomatic we can run a faster test, if they’re symptomatic a couple of weeks ago the test takes much longer,” said Wells. “The blood banks are working really hard and working on their testing methodologies to hopefully be able to screen the blood supply, and I know they’re doing things like asking about travel and other things associated with Zika now.”

United Blood services, a national nonprofit community blood center, is one of those blood banks assisting with testing and making sure Zika-infected blood is not taken in as a blood donation.

“As of now, anyone who has traveled to the Zika-risk areas we actually have to test them for the Zika virus,” said James LeClaire, the regional director of field operations for the Lubbock United Blood Services station.

LeClaire says for individuals who have traveled to Zika-affected areas that they are issued a questionnaire before being asked to donate blood including questions such as where did they travel to, for how long and what symptoms if any are they experiencing.

Although there is no FDA-licensed test for the virus, in July, they began testing for the virus through two separate Investigational New Drug (IND) applications for blood collected in the mainland U.S. and Puerto Rico. It is through these tests that that health officials are able to determine if an individual returning from Zika-affected areas. The sooner a patient comes in for testing, the sooner they will know if they have the virus. If an individual sees a doctor even a week after they’ve been experiencing symptoms, it will greatly slow down the response time.

Whether in West Texas or abroad, local health officials want everyone to practice self-care in not getting bit so as to prevent Zika, West Nile (so far this summer, there have been no reports of West Nile in Lubbock) and other mosquito-borne infections. This includes wearing long sleeves, mosquito repellant, not leaving doors open for long period of time and emptying out standing water around your home.

State officials are helping out to ensure everyone is able to protect themselves.

“Texas Medicaid is now allowing women on Medicaid to get mosquito repellant. Their physician would have to write a prescription but they could get a mosquito repellant that way,” said Wells.

Wells also stated that there is also work being done at the national level to get more funding for Zika research and testings, as well as a registry that women infected by the virus will be apart of after giving birth so that the lives of their babies are closely monitored and so that they can get help soon if needed.

“So there’s things happening, not as fast as you always want them to, but things are happening so that we can better combat this disease,” said Wells.

No mosquitos in Texas have tested positive for the virus.

For a link to the press release shared by EverythingLubbock regarding the infant’s death in Texas linked to Zika, click here.