Transmission of Zika Virus, Colorado | CDC EID

Volume 17, Number 5–May 2011
Dispatch
Probable Non–Vector-borne Transmission of Zika Virus, Colorado, USA
Brian D. Foy, Kevin C. Kobylinski, Joy L. Chilson Foy, Bradley J. Blitvich, Amelia Travassos da Rosa, Andrew D. Haddow, Robert S. Lanciotti, and Robert B. Tesh

Author affiliations: Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA (B.D. Foy, K.C. Kobylinski); Poudre Valley Hospital, Fort Collins (J.L.C. Foy); Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA (B.J. Blitvich); University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, USA (A. Travassos da Rosa, A.D. Haddow, R.B. Tesh); and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins (R.S. Lanciotti)

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Abstract
Clinical and serologic evidence indicate that 2 American scientists contracted Zika virus infections while working in Senegal in 2008. One of the scientists transmitted this arbovirus to his wife after his return home. Direct contact is implicated as the transmission route, most likely as a sexually transmitted infection .

Zika virus (ZIKV), a mosquito-transmitted flavivirus, has been isolated from sentinel monkeys, mosquitoes, and sick persons in Africa and Southeast Asia (1,2). Serologic surveys indicate that ZIKV infections can be relatively common among persons in southeastern Senegal and other areas of Africa, but that ZIKV-associated disease may be underreported or misdiagnosed. In 2007, a large outbreak of ZIKV infection occurred on Yap Island in the southwestern Pacific that infected ≈70% of the island's inhabitants (3), which highlighted this virus as an emerging pathogen. The purpose of this study was to investigate and report 3 unusual cases of arboviral disease that occurred in Colorado in 2008.

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Transmission of Zika Virus, Colorado | CDC EID