LANSING – An Ingham County woman has become Michigan’s first resident with a confirmed case of the Zika virus, the Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday.
The woman, who is not pregnant, contracted the virus while traveling in a country where Zika virus is being transmitted. She began experiencing the symptoms of the virus – most of the symptoms are relatively mild and include fever, rash, joint pain and itchy, red eyes – when she returned.
The state did not release the woman’s name, what country she had been travelling in, where she had been treated or how her condition is now.
Because many Michigan residents travel south and to tropical countries during the winter, state Chief Medical Executive Doctor Eden Wells said travelers going to countries where Zika is known to be present need to take precautions against mosquitoes.
Wells also said that if the traveler is a pregnant woman or a woman considering becoming pregnant, the traveler may want to delay their travel.
Anyone in a country where Zika is present should contact their physician if they feel symptoms while traveling or within a week of returning from their travel, Wells said.
Infections generally occur when a person is bitten by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. While that species is not known in Michigan now, last week Oakland County announced it was beginning an effort to monitor specifically for that mosquito. There have been rare instances of a pregnant woman transmitting the effects of the virus to her unborn fetus, or transmission through sexual contact.
And while most symptoms are relatively mild and last for a few days, there are reported cases, the department said, of individuals contracting Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
There is no vaccine to prevent the infection or medicine to specifically treat the infection.
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