Where Is Zika In The US? Texas Pregnant Women Warned Against Travel To Brownsville Area

Public health officials have warned pregnant women against traveling to the Texas city of Brownsville. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued the warning Wednesday after announcing five known cases of the virus, all locally acquired, had been reported in the Brownsville area. Brownsville, located in Cameron County, Texas, reported its first case of a locally acquired transmission on Nov. 28, marking the first instance of a local case in the state of Texas.

Temperatures in the area were still conducive to the mosquito-borne illness and the city would be marked “yellow,” or “cautionary,” due to the implicit risk, the CDC and the Texas Department of State Health Services said. Cameron County shares a border with Mexico, which has also reported cases of the virus. The CDC suggested that Zika is less likely to occur at elevations above 6,500 feet, and have advised women who are pregnant or who plan on getting pregnant to avoid traveling anywhere within the country with an altitude less than 6,500 feet.

The CDC warning urged pregnant women living outside of the area to postpone any planned travel to Brownsville. Similar warnings were issued in the Miami-Dade County area of Florida, where locally acquired cases were first reported in July. As of Wednesday, Florida reported 785 cases of travel-related Zika, while there were 184 cases of locally acquired Zika reported.

“We knew it was only a matter of time before we saw a Zika case spread by a mosquito in Texas,” Dr. John Hellerstedt, the state health commissioner, said at the time when the first local case was discovered in Texas.

As of Wednesday, the CDC reported a total of 4,617 cases of the Zika virus in the U.S. That number includes lab-acquired cases, travel-associated cases and locally acquired cases.