Brownsville Zika Case Sparks Door-To-Door Visits

“This is something you always prepare for, but you just never know when it’s going to happen.”

By Wendy RigbyNovember 30, 2016 7:18 am, ,

Audio will be available shortly.

From Texas Public Radio

In an 8-block area of southwest Brownsville health workers like Erica Silva are going door to door looking for standing water where mosquitoes may breed, telling residents how to get rid of them, delivering educational materials in English and Spanish.

This neighborhood is home to the woman who tested positive for Zika.

City workers have trapped mosquitoes here and sent them off to the state to be tested.  Zika has raised alarm bells world-wide because it can cause severe, irreversible birth defects in unborn babies.

In just one day, healthcare workers in this border community have collected more than a hundred voluntary urine samples that will be tested for Zika. Cameron County Health Administrator Esmeralda Guajardo said with so many people going back and forth across the border with Mexico, it’s likely there are many more travel-related cases. There may also be some cases transmitted by area mosquitoes.

“We do expect that there’s going to be people walking around with Zika so we’re going to expect some positives,” Guajardo explained. “We have a country next to us. And we’re looking at it from a bi-national perspective, too.”

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