Ventura County Confirms First Zika Case

A case of Zika virus is confirmed in Ventura County.

The Ventura County resident was diagnosed with Zika after traveling to Latin America. Ventura County public health says the woman who is not pregnant is doing well, and was never hospitalized.

Public health officials make it clear that while someone in Ventura County tested positive for Zika, the virus has yet to be contracted in Ventura County.

“You are not going to catch Zika here in Ventura County because we do not have the mosquito vectors. The mosquitoes are Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, and right now we do not have that. Neighboring counties do. We have that vector of mosquito in Los Angeles County for instance,” said Ventura County Public Health Officer Dr. Robert Levin.

Pregnant women or women who plan on becoming pregnant in the near future should be the most careful, because Zika can put their unborn child at risk for birth defects and abnormalities. To prevent getting Zika the best thing they can do is avoid Zika prevalent areas, and use barrier protection when having sexual contact with anyone who has Zika or was recently in a Zika prevelant country.

There are more than 170 confirmed Zika virus cases in California. So far all are related to travel with one spread through sexual contact.