The State Health Department says 11 people in Pennsylvania have undergone blood tests to screen for the Zika virus. The CDC rejected 3 samples that didn’t meet its criteria , 1 was negative for the virus, and results for the remaining 7 are pending.
Zika’s suspected of causing severe brain damage in babies whose mothers were infected.
A local infectious disease specialist has never seen Zika, but in recent years, he’s treated at least 3 people with the Chikungunya virus, from a mosquito bite, during a Caribbean trip.
Dr. Robert Sullivan says, “the arthritis in those cases can be very severe, where people cannot walk and have severe joint aches for up to a year sometimes.”
He says says viruses carried by mosquitoes can also cause chills, fever, and rashes. Dr. Sullivan says we could see more Zika cases in Pennsylvania from people who’ve traveled to Central and South America.
In most cases, the virus is only transmitted through a mosquito bite, but on Tuesday, Texas health officials announced a confirmed case, transmitted through sexual contact.
