Zika virus cases confirmed in Pa. and Del.
Pennsylvania and Delaware health officials Tuesday confirmed their first cases of the Zika virus. Two women in Pennsylvania who recently traveled to countries affected by the virus tested positive. "They were very, very mild cases: fever, rash, no complications," state Health Secretary Karen Murphy said in a conference call with reporters.
Pennsylvania and Delaware health officials Tuesday confirmed their first cases of the Zika virus.
Two women in Pennsylvania who recently traveled to countries affected by the virus tested positive. "They were very, very mild cases: fever, rash, no complications," state Health Secretary Karen Murphy said in a conference call with reporters.
She declined to say whether the women were pregnant. Health officials' prime concern about the virus has been reports of a small percentage of babies born with abnormally small heads to women who were infected while pregnant in Brazil, the center of the epidemic in the Americas.
Murphy would not say when or where the women had traveled, or where they live. Counties with their own health departments - Bucks, Chester, Montgomery, and Philadelphia - said Tuesday night that they were not aware of any local cases.
"These individuals do not pose an infection risk," Murphy said.
In Delaware, a woman who also traveled to an affected region tested positive for the virus. That woman is not pregnant, a state official said.
At least 35 travel-associated cases, including one in North Jersey, have been reported by states around the country since last year, according to the most recent update last week from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new Pennsylvania and Delaware cases, which were confirmed by CDC laboratory testing, will likely be included in what could be substantially higher numbers expected to be released this week.
Ten more cases were reported in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands last week.
The mosquito-borne virus has spread quickly through Central and South America and the Caribbean. There are no symptoms in 80 percent of infections, and mild, flulike symptoms in most of the rest. There have been some reports of a temporary paralysis known as Guillain-Barre syndrome.
But a so-far-unproven link to babies born with microcephaly in Brazil has prompted health officials to advise that pregnant women consider not traveling to the 28 countries plus Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands where the virus is circulating.
Pregnant women who recently returned from those countries should be tested, according to state and federal guidance. Although the vast majority of Zika cases have been transmitted by mosquito bites, reports of three cases by sexual transmission prompted the CDC last week to advise that men who return from affected countries should abstain from sexual intercourse with pregnant partners or wear condoms.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has sent more than 20 blood samples to the CDC for testing, with five negative and most of the rest pending, said Murphy, who cautioned that additional samples may have been sent directly. The CDC lab, one of the few in the nation capable of testing for the virus, has a backlog of several weeks.
The New Jersey Department of Health will not comment on pending tests.
The mosquito species that is spreading the virus does not circulate in this region. If the virus appears locally once mosquito season begins in April, public health officials may build upon mosquito-eradication programs that target the species that transmits West Nile virus.
Meanwhile, Murphy said, the main concern is among travelers to the affected areas. They should avoid mosquitoes, wear long sleeves and long pants, and use mosquito repellent containing DEET.
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