CDC Assisting Zika Investigation into Case Not Linked with Travel
The investigating includes additional interviews and lab testing
The CDC announced it is assisting state and local public health disease control specialists in Utah investigate how a second resident became infected with Zika without traveling to an area with the virus present.
An elderly Utah resident died in late June after traveling to an area with Zika and contracted an unusually high amount of the virus—more than 100,000 times higher than in other samples.
The CDC then reported evidence of infection in a family contact of the deceased, and is now investigating how the second resident became infected. Additional interviews will be done, as well as more laboratory testing of family members and health care workers who may have been in contact with the diseased.
“The new case in Utah is a surprise, showing that we still have more to learn about Zika," said Erin Staples, MD, PhD, CDC’s Medical Epidemiologist on the ground in Utah. “Fortunately, the patient recovered quickly, and from what we have seen with more than 1,300 travel-associated cases of Zika in the continental United States and Hawaii, non-sexual spread from one person to another does not appear to be common."