Tests have confirmed Wisconsin’s second case of Zika virus, this time in a Dane County resident. Public health officials said Friday that the woman carrying the virus is not pregnant and that she got infected while traveling in Colombia.
The mosquitoes that carry Zika have not been found in Wisconsin and there have not been any locally acquired cases in the state or anywhere in the continental U.S.
“We are adding to our monitoring efforts this year to make sure that we’re looking for specific types of breeding areas that these mosquitoes use so that we can be confident we’re not missing them,” said John Hausbeck from Public Health Madison and Dane County. “But at this point we have no reason to believe we have those mosquitoes here.”
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Zika virus is transmitted to people primarily through the bite of an infected mosquito, but can also be transmitted through blood transfusions and sexual activity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has linked Zika to a birth defect which causes babies to have abnormally small heads.
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