The first case of Zika virus transmitted locally in Texas this year has been confirmed in the Rio Grande Valley, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The Department of State Health Services says the case was reported in Hildalgo County, in the Rio Grande Valley, in a patient who acquired it from a mosquito bite in Texas. The vast majority of Zika transmissions in Texas have been in people who acquired the disease while traveling in the Caribbean or Latin America.
Six locally transmitted Zika cases were reported last year, but this is the first in 2017.
The Health Department says no quarantine is likely and there is no danger of continued transmission in Texas, but this is a good opportunity to remember to remove standing water, especially in the current drought conditions, where mosquitios might be more likely to seek out the water to lay eggs.
Zika Virus can be very dangerous for pregnant women and can even lead to babies with major birth defects.