A look at Texas’ first homegrown case of Zika

DALLAS (AP) — Health officials are going door-to-door in the Texas neighborhood of a woman who is believed to be the first person to contract the Zika virus by getting bitten by a mosquito in that state.

Officials are offering to test the woman’s neighbors in Brownsville, which is on the border with Mexico, and are educating them about how to fight the spread of the disease, including how to reduce the breeding habitats of the mosquito that transmits it. But experts don’t expect big outbreaks in the U.S. like those that have happened in parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Thus far, Florida is the only other state with homegrown cases of the disease. It typically causes only mild symptoms, at worst, but the disease is especially dangerous to pregnant women, as it can cause severe birth defects, including babies born with unusually small heads.

Zika is transmitted to people primarily through the bite of an infected Aedes aegypti species mosquito, but it can also be spread during sex. Most infected people don’t even have symptoms, but for those who do, it’s usually a mild illness, with fever, rash and joint pain.

Even though it’s late in the season, mosquitoes can still spread Zika in some areas of the country, said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said that because of the warm conditions in South Texas, mosquitoes can be a concern year-round. But he noted that much of Texas is at the end of its mosquito season.