Mosquitoes may be tiny, but they’re creating a huge buzz in not only Central America, but across the United States as well. On Thursday morning, it was confirmed that there are now Zika virus cases in twenty states.

The virus is spreading, the hysteria along with it. However, doctors are saying to not panic.

“To put this into perspective right now in Lubbock, your odds of waking up tomorrow morning with influenza, if you haven’t had your flu shot are multiple multiple multiple times higher than catching Zika virus, now or probably even in the summer,” said Dr. Lawrence P. Martinelli, Chief Medical Informatics Officer and Infectious Disease Physician at Covenant Health. “So if you haven’t had your flu shot it’s not too late, if you’ve had your flu shot thank you very much, please get it again next year.”

We here in the South Plains typically won’t be expecting mosquitoes until the spring/early summer months. So, is there anything to really worry about for those of us in West Texas? Well, it depends: travel.

“Really the biggest public health concern with Zika is the possibility of birth defects,” said Katherine Wells, the Director of Public Health for the City of Lubbock’s Health Department. “They’ve seen now in Brazil a correlation between women that are infected with Zika virus during pregnancy and then the baby being born with a birth defect. So we really, the concern now is making sure that women who are either pregnant or are thinking about getting pregnant will not be infected with the virus.”

The CDC is advising minimal to zero travel to Brazil and various regions of Central America where the virus has been detected, especially for pregnant women, or women who may become pregnant, as there have been links to possible birth defects in babies whose mothers were infected while pregnant. Such birth defects include, microcephaly, a birth defect commonly associated with a shrunken head, a condition that often signals incomplete brain development. In addition, Zika may now be linked to serious eye abnormalities that could potentially lead to blindness in babies with microcephaly.

But this doesn’t mean that the virus is only targeting pregnant women. The virus can be transmitted sexually to men, and vice versa.

“If we get them, they’ll be imported,” said Dr. Martinelli. “It’ll be someone who has traveled somewhere and come back to Lubbock, and a lot of us travel during the summer, and it may be the thing that we bring back and we wouldn’t even know we did.”

Reason being, you may not even feel it if you are infected.

“Zika can affect anybody, all it takes is a mosquito bite,” said Dr. Martinelli. “The thing to remember is 4 out of the 5 people who get it have no symptoms at all. The people who do get symptoms, the main ones are fever, pain a rash, and red eyes and occasionally some vomiting.”

So, in regard to the hysteria surrounding the virus: don’t panic, but increase your awareness. Also, if you or a family member thinks they might be traveling to an infected area or will come into contact with an infected person, to visit www.cdc.gov  for all necessary precautions.

The type of mosquito that carries the virus does make its way to Lubbock in the summer months. And while we may or may not come into contact with the virus here in Lubbock, it is something the Lubbock Health Department is closely monitoring and tracking.

“Zika is a reportable disease, so if someone is diagnosed with it here in the Lubbock area, the health department is going to see that and we’ll be investigating that,” said Wells. “We want to prevent getting the Zika virus into the local population.”

And as we near spring and summer, it is also very important to prevent mosquito bites the best that you can: wear long sleeves, pants, a hat and keep your mosquito repellant handy.

*the spelling of Dr. Martinelli’s name is incorrect in the above broadcast. How it is written here in the article is correct: Dr. Lawrence P. Martinelli.

*if you have serious concern that you may come into contact with the virus, you are advised to speak with your physician immediately, and to visit cdc.gov