HARLINGEN — Health officials said a Cameron County resident developed the state’s first locally-acquired case of the mosquito-borne illness chikungunya last year.
The patient got sick last November and was diagnosed by a lab test in January, the Texas Department of State Health Services said yesterday.
The case, however, was not reported to the local health department until last month, according to a DSHS press release.
The case was confirmed last week by testing at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
An investigation by the Cameron County Department of Health and Human Services determined the patient had not traveled.
All previous Texans who contracted the illness were infected while traveling abroad, DSHS said.
Because this case was contracted more than six months ago and mosquito surveillance has not found chikungunya in local mosquitoes, the primary risk of infection remains related to travel, DSHS said.
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