SALT LAKE CITY—Health authorities in Utah are investigating a unique case of Zika found in a person who had been caring for a relative who had an unusually high level of the virus in his blood.
Exactly how the disease was transmitted is still a mystery, though the person has since recovered.
The elderly relative who died after contracting Zika abroad had amounts of the virus in his blood more than 100,000 times higher than other samples of infected people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Though the tropical mosquito that mainly spreads Zika isn’t typically found in Utah, officials haven’t ruled out the possibility that the man brought a mosquito back with him from an area where he caught the virus, perhaps in a suitcase, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The new case in Utah is a surprise, showing that we still have more to learn about Zika,” CDC medical epidemiologist Dr. Erin Staples said.
