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JULY 22, 2016 7:00 AM
How a Caribbean island became prime source of U.S. Zika cases
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BY PHIL GALEWITZ
Kaiser Health News
More than 1,400 Americans contracted Zika while traveling outside the U.S. this year and a Caribbean-island nation is one of the top destinations where they caught the virus.
Visitors to the Dominican Republic account for more than a fifth of the confirmed Zika cases in the U.S. through mid-July, according to data from state health departments. New York, Florida and California alone tally 304 cases linked to the country, the data show.
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Data from the four health departments that have reported more than half of the national case total ? New York state, New York City, Florida and California ? provide additional detail.
More people who visited the Dominican Republic in 2016 returned with Zika than did U.S. residents who traveled to Puerto Rico, Colombia, Jamaica, El Salvador, Haiti, Guyana and Venezuela combined, the four departments? figures show.
What?s the explanation? In part, it reflects travel patterns between people living in the U.S. with family members in the Caribbean nation, public health officials say.
?It?s not really tourists going back and forth,? said Chris Barker, a researcher who studies the epidemiology of mosquito-transmitted diseases at the veterinary medicine school at the University of California-Davis.
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How a Caribbean island became prime source of U.S. Zika cases
...
BY PHIL GALEWITZ
Kaiser Health News
More than 1,400 Americans contracted Zika while traveling outside the U.S. this year and a Caribbean-island nation is one of the top destinations where they caught the virus.
Visitors to the Dominican Republic account for more than a fifth of the confirmed Zika cases in the U.S. through mid-July, according to data from state health departments. New York, Florida and California alone tally 304 cases linked to the country, the data show.
...
Data from the four health departments that have reported more than half of the national case total ? New York state, New York City, Florida and California ? provide additional detail.
More people who visited the Dominican Republic in 2016 returned with Zika than did U.S. residents who traveled to Puerto Rico, Colombia, Jamaica, El Salvador, Haiti, Guyana and Venezuela combined, the four departments? figures show.
What?s the explanation? In part, it reflects travel patterns between people living in the U.S. with family members in the Caribbean nation, public health officials say.
?It?s not really tourists going back and forth,? said Chris Barker, a researcher who studies the epidemiology of mosquito-transmitted diseases at the veterinary medicine school at the University of California-Davis.
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