Another case of Zika infection but this time the virus has not been contracted through a mosquito bite or sexual contact.
The doctors have no idea how the infected patient from Utah has contracted the virus. He helped care for an older man from Salt Lake County who had become infected with the virus after traveling abroad and died in June (even if it is no clear if other ailments contributed to his death). He had a very high level of virus in his blood, saliva and urine, but since he didn’t have any sexual contact with the second infected man, it didn’t seem to be a plausible explanation for what happened.
The infected caregiver had not traveled to a country where Zika is circulating and had not had sex with him. In addition there is no evidence of the presence of Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus mosquitos in Salt Lake County.
The transmission source is unknown. “We don’t have any evidence that suggests Zika can be passed from one person to another by sneezing or coughing or kissing” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has a team investigating the case. Dr. Frieden said other people who had come into contact with the Utah man were being tested. The results will take a few weeks.
There are more than 1,300 case of the Zika in the continental United States — all acquired through travel abroad. This raises some interesting questions: what is the cause of the infection? Was there a needle stick or injury? Or a possible contact with other bodily fluid like urine or saliva?”