Second case of Zika virus reported in Clark County

Clark County health officials confirmed the second case of Zika virus disease statewide and in Southern Nevada on Monday, less than a week after the first case was reported.

A woman who recently visited Brazil contracted the disease and became sick March 18, Southern Nevada Health District medical epidemiologist Tony Fredrick said.

The health district collected a blood sample March 23 after the woman was referred to the district by her physician, he said. The case was confirmed through testing by the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory.

Zika virus disease, which is usually transmitted through the bite of infected Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus species mosquitoes, can cause fever, rash, joint pain, red eyes, muscle pain and headaches.

The virus can also be transmitted from a man to his sexual partners, from a woman to her fetus during pregnancy and from a woman to her child during delivery, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There have also been reports of Zika spreading through blood transfusion.

Though it’s rarely fatal and 80 percent of infected individuals won’t show symptoms, researchers suspect a link between the disease and a rise in Brazil of reported cases of microcephaly, a neurological condition in which a baby has an unusually small head, typically signaling brain development issues.

The CDC has advised pregnant women to avoid areas where Zika has spread, which includes many countries in Central and South America.

Researchers are also investigating a potential link between Zika and Guillain-Barré syndrome, in which “a person’s own immune system damages the nerve cells, causing muscle weakness, and sometimes, paralysis,” according to the CDC.

The case reported Monday in Southern Nevada is the second confirmed Zika case in the state, said Martha Framsted, spokeswoman for the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health.

Citing privacy concerns, the Southern Nevada Health District said it would not release the woman’s name, exact age, city of residence or information on whether she is pregnant.

The district also refused to release statistics on the overall number of pregnant women whose blood they’ve sent to the CDC for testing.

On Thursday, the health district announced the first confirmed Zika case in Nevada. A Clark County man tested positive for the virus after visiting Guatemala.

“We do expect that we will report more positive cases in the future. However, it is important for the public to continue to understand that to date these cases have all been acquired outside of the United States,” health district Chief Health Officer Joseph Iser said in a news release.

The health district has sent 22 total samples for testing, with 10 returned so far. Of those 10, two have been positive.

The Washoe County Health District said it had sent samples from 11 women and one man to the CDC for Zika testing as of Friday evening. Eight of those women are pregnant and were tested at the request of their physicians.

Karen Duus, an associate professor at Touro University who teaches microbiology and immunology, pointed out that neither of the two mosquito species known to carry the disease has been found in Southern Nevada.

She added that Nevada’s climate and items such as standard screens on windows make it less likely Zika will spread far and wide in the state.

“Don’t get really, really paranoid about life at home,” she said.

Contact Pashtana Usufzy at pusufzy@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4563. Find @pashtana_u on Twitter.