Potential Zika-carrying mosquitoes found in Lea County

Make it eight and counting. The Aedes aegypti, a mosquito species that can transmit Zika virus, has been identified for the first time in Lea County, state health officials said Monday. With this latest find, this specific breed of mosquito has been trapped and identified this summer in Lea, Doña Ana, Eddy, Chaves and Sierra counties, and Aedes albopictus was found in Roosevelt County, according to a news release. In past years, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes have also been reported in Otero County, and Aedes albopictus in Curry County. “We are mapping out the areas at risk of Zika transmission in New Mexico,” said Department of Health Secretary Designate Lynn Gallagher in a statement. “With this latest discovery, we are alerting the residents Lea County to do as others in neighboring counties are already doing: eliminate standing water around homes where these mosquitoes can breed and multiply,” she said. “Help your community prevent the devastating consequences of birth defects from Zika virus infection in pregnant women.” So far, there have been no cases of Zika virus identified in Lea County. The state has had six travel-acquired cases of Zika virus this year, the health department said. In each case, the patient was infected while traveling abroad and diagnosed after they returned home...more

The Zika Undercount and the Virus’s Growing Threat to Public Health

By Ron Klain

 

When I was coordinating the U.S. response to Ebola in the fall of 2014, one frequent problem was false reports of Ebola cases in this country. Early symptoms of Ebola resemble flu. Even when we screened out the 99% of flu patients who had not been to Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea (and therefore did not have Ebola), there were still many more suspected or feared cases than actual instances of Ebola in the U.S. Many sleepless nights in the winter of 2014-2015 ended, fortunately, with negative Ebola tests.

 

But among the many reasons policy makers and citizens are not taking seriously enough the potential threat and consequences of Zika is that just the opposite is true for this virus.

About 80% of people who contract the Zika virus experience no symptoms. And health-care professionals are generally not testing asymptomatic people in the U.S., even if they have been to Zika-affected countries or areas in this country where Zika is spreading. This means that most people in the U.S. and its territories who have Zika do not know that they have the virus.

 This is particularly stunning when we consider how many cases of Zika have been laboratory-confirmed: more than 2,500 in the 50 states and over 9,000 others in U.S. territories (largely in Puerto Rico). Given that four out of five people with Zika don’t have symptoms and that some people who have symptoms might not get tested, the number of Zika cases in the U.S. and its territories is probably in the tens of thousands already.

We might presume that pregnant women are aware of the dangers to their unborn babies and so are more likely to get tested if they sense symptoms. But most women who have Zika do not have symptoms and so may not think about being tested; others become pregnant after being exposed and likewise may not focus on the need for testing. This means a high percentage of pregnant women exposed to Zika have not been tested, making the current confirmed case counts–600 pregnant women with Zika in the States and 800 in Puerto Rico–almost certainly undercounts. Fortunately, most pregnant women who have Zika, even those exhibiting symptoms, will not give birth to babies with microcephaly–but some unknown, if small, percentage of them will. If the number of women with Zika is higher than the published case count, the number of babies at risk of being born with microcephaly is also higher than the number of confirmed cases suggests.

The Zika undercount also means that the risk of local transmission is far higher than many appreciate...
 

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6 NM counties have mosquito species known to carry Zika

The mosquito species known for transmitting the Zika Virus, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, have been reported in six counties in New Mexico — and Eddy County is one of them. Dr. Paul Ettestad, New Mexico Department of Health veterinarian, said as of now there are only four cases of the virus in New Mexico — two in Bernalillo County and one each in Chaves and Doña Ana counties. According to the New Mexico Department of Health's website, the four people infected contracted the virus while traveling abroad and were diagnosed after they returned home. Ettestad said the virus can spread if the mosquitoes bite someone who is infected and then bite another person. Because carrier mosquitoes have been reported in Eddy County, residents have to stay cautious. "The mosquitoes are aggressive in the daytime but are also night-biters," Ettestad said. "They like to get inside homes and live there." According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms of the virus include fever, rash, joint pain, conjunctivitis or red eyes, muscle pain and headache...more