County health unit, CMH monitoring Zika situation

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The Scurry County Health Department is working with Cogdell Memorial Hospital doctors to monitor the Zika situation after the first confirmed case was reported in a baby born in Texas.
“If the doctors suspect a potential Zika patient, the patient is referred to our health department for testing,” said Dana Hartman, director of the county health unit.
She said the public will be informed if a situation develops in Scurry or surrounding counties.
Hartman said the best defense against the Zika virus is for the public to follow basic precautions when it comes to mosquito control. These include:
• Empty standing water from rain gutters, old tires, buckets, plastic covers, toys or any other container where mosquitoes can breed.
• Empty and change the water in bird baths, fountains, wading pools, rain barrels and potted plant trays at least once a week to eliminate potential mosquito habitats.
• Drain temporary pools of water or fill them with dirt.
• Keep swimming pool water treated and circulating.
Harris County health officials confirmed the first Texas case of a baby born with microcephaly linked to the Zika virus earlier this week.
The Department of State Health Services said the child’s mother had traveled from Latin America, where Zika, spread mainly by a tropical mosquito, is causing an epidemic and where the then-pregnant woman likely was infected.
Neither the woman nor the child is infectious, meaning they pose no additional risk, the agency said. Health officials have said the virus also can be transmitted sexually.
So far, there are no cases of transmission by mosquitoes in the continental U.S.
Texas health officials have reported 59 cases of Zika virus disease — three of them confirmed in pregnant women. All are related to travel outside the U.S. to areas with active Zika transmission.
There is no vaccine to prevent or medicine to treat Zika virus infection, which poses its most serious threat to unborn children.