Northern Nevada county reports state’s first Zika virus case in a pregnant woman

A pregnant woman in Northern Nevada has contracted Zika virus, health officials said Friday, providing the first public acknowledgement of such a case statewide.

The woman tested positive for Zika virus infection after traveling to “a country with documented Zika virus transmission,” the Washoe County Health District said in a news release Friday morning. She was not displaying any symptoms of the mosquito-borne disease, it said.

Officials declined to disclose the identity of the woman or the country she visited.

“It’s hard to imagine the heartache involved with knowing that your pregnancy has been affected in one way or another with the Zika virus. We wish the best for this woman and her family,” Washoe County District Health Officer Kevin Dick said in the release.

Zika virus infection during pregnancy is a cause of microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects and has been linked to problems in infants, including eye defects, hearing loss and impaired growth, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control.

The case disclosed Friday is the first Zika pregnancy case publicly confirmed by a Nevada health department.

Neither the Southern Nevada Health District nor the state Division of Public and Behavioral Health report the pregnancy status of women who test positive for Zika virus, citing privacy concerns.

As of Aug. 18, more than 580 pregnant women in the U.S. have tested positive for likely exposure to the Zika virus, according to the CDC. In U.S. territories, that number is more than 800.

The Washoe County woman, the area’s fourth case of a travel-associated Zika virus infection, was confirmed Thursday after CDC testing. There have been 11 confirmed cases of Zika infection in Clark County.

Randall Todd, director of the Washoe health district’s Division of Epidemiology and Public Health Preparedness, said officials discussed what information to disclose before issuing the statement, but felt the fact that a pregnant woman had been infected was important for public awareness.

“Anyone who is pregnant or thinks they might become pregnant should avoid traveling to any country where Zika transmission is present,” he said.

The types of mosquitoes that commonly transmit Zika virus are not typically found in Nevada.

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