A 29-year-old Hermosillo resident who traveled to Brazil last month is the first case of Zika in Sonora, the governor’s office reported.
The patient, who was not identified, got sick after a four-week trip to the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Curitiba and Iguazu between January and February, the news release said.
Upon his return, he had headaches, a fever and was lethargic for about three days, the cause of which was later confirmed by the state’s lab to be the Zika virus.
The man was not hospitalized and recovered at home, officials said.
The state’s epidemiologist and mosquito control team searched for other cases in the man’s neighborhood and monitored the area for two weeks — two maximum incubation periods — but haven’t found any, the state said. None of the man’s relatives have presented symptoms either.
“The Secretary of Public Health is ready for the early identification of suspected cases of Zika, Chikungunya and dengue,” the release said, “and to immediately implement prevention and control measures against Aedes aegypti mosquito,” which can transmit the viruses.
Last month, the World Health Organization declared the explosive spread of Zika in the Americas to be a global emergency, due to its link to the spike in the number of babies born with abnormally small heads and the rise in a rare neurological syndrome that can cause paralysis and death.
Most people who catch Zika only experience mild symptoms such as fever, skin rash and muscle pain. There is currently no licensed treatment or vaccine.
So far, Zika has triggered outbreaks in 41 countries, although confirmed cases linking Zika to babies with birth defects have been seen only in Brazil and French Polynesia. Nine countries have reported a spike in cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a neurological condition that typically affects people after infections.
On Wednesday, French researchers reported the first Zika-associated case of another neurological condition, call meningoencephalitis. It involves inflammation of the brain and the thin tissue that covers the brain.
