A 42-year-old woman from St. Croix has tested positive for the Zika virus, according to an Associated Press report. Health authorities in the US Virgin Islands say the woman has no recent travel history and is considered a locally acquired case.
Image/M.Minderhoud
Through Jan. 16, twenty countries and territories in the Americas have been recognized as having autochthonous transmission of Zika– Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin, Suriname, and Venezuela.
Zika virus is a mosquito-borne flavivirus transmitted primarily by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Most infections are asymptomatic, and symptomatic disease generally is mild. Symptoms, if present, include mild fever, rash (mostly maculo-papular), headaches, arthralgia, myalgia, asthenia, and non-purulent conjunctivitis, occurring about two to seven days after the mosquito vector bite.
In May 2015, the first local transmission of Zika virus in the Region of the Americas was reported in Brazil. Following the spread of Zika virus in Brazil, there has been a marked reported increase in the number of infants born with microcephaly; it is not known how many of these cases are associated with Zika virus infection.
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