Alameda and Contra Costa county health officials confirmed Friday that there were a total of three more travel-related cases of Zika confirmed in the East Bay, bringing the number of Bay Area counties affected by the virus to four.
Alameda County Health Department spokeswoman Sherri Willis did not elaborate on the case other than to say the woman was not pregnant, and Contra Costa County Health Department spokeswoman Victoria Balladares said there were two people who contracted the virus who had been traveling to Central and South America. At least one was not hospitalized, she said.
That news follows two other Zika confirmations this week in San Francisco and Napa County. Both contracted the disease in Central America. The San Francisco traveler is recovered and doing well, health officials said.
According to health officials, no transmission of the disease took place in the United States, and there is no risk of transmission.
This is not the first case of the Zika virus in California. Other cases have been confirmed in Los Angeles, San Diego and Yolo counties.
Nationwide, there are more than 10 reported cases of Zika virus involving pregnant women, but locally, Napa County officials stressed the latest patient is no longer showing symptoms of the virus and health officials say they do not see any evidence that this virus was transmitted locally.
The Zika virus – spread mainly by mosquito bites – is epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean. The virus causes mild illness or no symptoms in most people. But in Brazil, officials are investigating a possible link to babies born with unusually small heads, a rare birth defect called microcephaly that can signal underlying brain damage.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , there have been no reported mosquito-transmitted cases of Zika in the U.S.
Local
The information below comes directly from the San Francisco Health Department:
The San Francisco Health Department issued advisories to health care providers on January 22, 2016 and February 12, 2016 informing them that the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a travel alert for people traveling to areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing. Pregnant women are advised to consider postponing travel to these countries, and all travelers are advised to take precautions to avoid mosquito bites. Women who are pregnant and have sexual partner(s) that have traveled to areas with Zika are advised to abstain from sex or use condoms consistently for the duration of the pregnancy in order to prevent sexual transmission of Zika.
For more information, visit cdc.gov/zika or sfcdcp.org/zika
