INTERNATIONAL NEWS - Texas health officials on Monday reported the state’s first case of Zika likely spread by local mosquitoes, making Texas the second state within the continental United States to report local transmission of the virus that has been linked to birth defects.The case involved a woman living in Cameron County near the Mexico border who is not pregnant, the Texas Department of State Health Services said.Pregnancy is the biggest concern with Zika because the virus can cause severe, life-long birth defects, including microcephaly, in which a child is born with an abnormally small head, a sign its brain has stopped growing normally.Texas said it currently has no other suspected cases of local Zika transmission, but officials there plan to step up efforts to watch for the virus. According to the CDC, a total of 4,444 cases of Zika have been reported in the continental United States and Hawaii as of Nov. 23, including 182 infections spread locally by mosquitoes and 36 believed to be the result of sexual transmission. CDC officials said Zika has been diagnosed in a resident of Brownsville — which borders Mexico at the state’s southernmost tip — without any other known risk factors for contracting the disease, such as sexual transmission or travel to an area where the virus is widespread. “We knew it was only a matter of time before we saw a Zika case spread by a mosquito in Texas,” Dr. John Hellerstedt, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said in a news release. “We still don’t believe the virus will become widespread in Texas, but there could be more cases, so people need to protect themselves from mosquito bites, especially in parts of the state that stay relatively warm in the fall and winter.”

Dr Amesh Adalja, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said local transmission in Texas was “totally expected.”

Both dengue and chikungunya, two closely related viruses, have already spread locally in Texas, and the state “is a well-established home” of Aedes mosquitoes. Because the virus can also be sexually transmitted, pregnant women or those trying to become pregnant should avoid unprotected sex with a partner who has been infected or who has lived in or traveled to an area where the virus is circulating, as recommended by the CDC See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter. Nearly four months after Florida became the first state in the nation to report a locally acquired Zika infection, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that its epidemiologists are working with Texas health officials on what they suspect is that state's first local case. An environmental health specialist points out an aegypti mosquito caught on a "mosquito trap" in April 2016 in McAllen, Texas (AFP Photo/John Moore)

Miami (AFP) - Texas has announced its first case of local Zika virus, making it the second US state after Florida to say it likely has mosquitoes spreading the disease that can cause birth defects.
Texas confirms its first case of locally transmitted Zika virus by mosquitoes, becoming the second U.S. state to report a local transmission of the virus after Florida. The Texas Department of State Health Services says the case involves a woman living in Cameron County, who is not pregnant.