Health Notice: Updated Zika Testing Recommendations and Utilization of DC Public Health Laboratory
District of Columbia sent this bulletin at 04/19/2018 08:59 AM EDTHaving trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page.
April 18th, 2018
Health Notice for District of Columbia Health Care Providers
Updated Zika Virus Testing Recommendations and Utilization of DC Public Health Laboratory
Summary
To date, there have been 36 cases of laboratory-confirmed Zika virus disease (ZVD) in the District of Columbia (DC), all of which have been travel-associated or sexually transmitted. As of April 4, 2018, states have reported a total of 5,676 cases of ZVD to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) since January 1, 2015. Of these, 5,392 were travel-associated, 229 were locally acquired mosquito-borne cases, 52 were sexually transmitted, 2 were laboratory acquired, and 1 was person-to-person through an unknown route. Locally acquired mosquito-borne transmission in the United States has only been documented in Florida and Texas. In DC, there have been no reported cases of ZVD spread by local mosquitoes or through blood or tissue products (e.g., blood transfusion, sperm donation).
In this notice, we describe DC Health’s newly updated recommendations for Zika testing. Please share this notice with all appropriate staff at your facility.
A webinar to discuss testing updates will be held by DC Health on May 9th, 2018 at 12 pm to address any healthcare provider concerns. The webinar will also provide an opportunity to discuss vector-borne disease reporting, including West Nile virus and Lyme disease. If you are interested, please email zike.registry@dc.gov, or more details will be provided in the upcoming weeks.
The complete health notice can be viewed on our Health Notices website.
