Investigation: Unique Utah Zika case remains medical mystery
SALT LAKE CITY — A case of the Zika virus in Utah is now the only one in the continental U.S. that’s still puzzling researchers on exactly how it spread, health officials said Tuesday.
The man caught the illness after caring for his infected father, who had an extremely high level of the virus in his blood when he died in June, according to a report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One possibility is that he transmitted the virus to his son through a bodily fluid in a way that hasn’t been recognized with Zika yet, officials said. The son kissed and hugged his dying father and helped care for him in a hospital, according to the report.
Investigators couldn’t test the unidentified Salt Lake County man because he had already been cremated by the time he was diagnosed, said Angela Dunn with the Utah Department of Health. Signs of Zika have been found in blood, urine, semen and saliva, and the case could direct new research into whether it can also be carried in things like tears or stools, she said.
No other cases have yet been found among the family or health workers. It’s unclear whether the case points to a potentially common mode of transmission, said Alex Kallen with the CDC. “I don’t think we know the answer to that right now,” he said.