Health officials in Texas announced on Monday, Aug. 15, that a local man has contracted Zika infection after a trip to Florida. The case is now considered the first instance of the Zika virus being transmitted from one state to another.
According to the Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS), the El Paso County resident recently came home after visiting the Miami area, where cases of Zika infection have been reported. He had sought testing for the virus just before he became ill.
Officials linked the Texas infection to cases in Florida based on the patient's travel dates, the onset of his Zika symptoms and confirmed local transmissions of the virus in Miami. The TDSHS has tagged the case as "travel-related" and is currently conducting an investigation regarding the incident.
While the Texas infection case serves as the first instance of interstate transmission in the United States, it doesn't necessarily mean that there is already a Zika epidemic in the country. However, experts believe it provides insight as to how easily the virus could spread in an area once enough people have become infected.
Texas has recorded as many as 108 confirmed cases of travel-related Zika infection so far, with three cases involving pregnant women. Public health officials, however, are on high alert for transmission cases within the state.
Zika Virus Transmission In Florida
The office of Florida Gov. Rick Scott reported on Monday that the number of non-travel related cases of Zika infection in the state has now reached 30 with the addition of two new confirmed cases.
Despite this development, Gov. Scott said they believe that the virus is only being transmitted in the Wynwood neighborhood in Miami, covering less than a square mile area.
The state's Health Department said one of the patients contracted the virus in Wynwood and a second one contracted it while staying just beyond the one-square-mile affected area.
Health officials are still looking into the four areas in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade Counties where local transmissions of the Zika virus have been reported. One case was detected in Palm Beach while three cases were found in Miami-Dade.
The Florida governor's office, however, insists that active Zika virus transmission only occurs within the one-square-mile area in Wynwood based on reports by the state's Health Department. Wynwood is known as a popular dining and entertainment district located north of downtown Miami.
Meanwhile, Florida's Department of Agriculture has screened 25,000 mosquitoes for Zika. However, none of the insects tested positive for the infection. Experts believe it is not unusual for mosquito test samples to return negative even during a local outbreak of a disease.
