RETRACTED: Zika Arrives in Houston, Six Confirmed Cases

Legacy Community Health issued the following statement by Dr. Ann Barnes, chief medical officer, on the Zika virus. “Legacy Community Health, in conjunction with Harris County Public Health and Houston Health Department, has since conducted an in-depth review of the six Zika occurrences the health center announced yesterday morning. As a result of that review, we can only confirm the individuals were exposed to a flavivirus, which can include Zika as well as other viruses.”

“The laboratory results do not provide a conclusive diagnosis that the women became infected specifically with Zika virus. Legacy regrets the error.”

Legacy Community Health (LCH) announced on June 15, 2017, that six of its patients have been confirmed positive for Zika.

These patients were screened during 2017 for the virus and given a preliminary diagnosis. It was not until May, 2017, that Legacy received confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that all were confirmed positives.

All six women contracted the Zika virus while traveling internationally.

According to LCH, these women have delivered their babies.

“The threat of Zika is lower this year than last in our hemisphere, but as our six latest cases show, pregnant women in Texas should remain vigilant,” said Dr. Ann Barnes, Legacy’s chief medical officer. LHC is a not-for-profit Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), provides comprehensive care to over 150,000 patients.

“Patient education in Harris County must continue through this year’s mosquito season. Prevention must still be the key message coming from public health officials and health care providers,” said Dr. Barnes.

About 5 percent of women who were infected with Zika during their pregnancies delivered a baby with microcephaly, or another birth defect, probably caused by the Zika virus, according to the CDC.

This new CDC data suggests that a Zika virus infection during any trimester of pregnancy might result in Zika-associated birth defects. The birth defect risk varied a bit based on the timing of infection.

"These findings are consistent with an earlier report we produced on women in the 50 states who had Zika-affected pregnancies," said Anne Schuchat, MD, the acting director of the CDC.

Both U.S. Senators from Texas, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, recently sent a letter to the CDC highlighting Zika’s ongoing risk to Texas, calling prevention a “critical public health priority.”

The Legacy Health System comprises 29 clinics across Southeast Texas, and sees approximately 300 pregnant women each day. During 2016, Last year, LHS serviced eight cases of the Zika virus.

Travel alerts issued by the CDC are still in effect, including Cameron County in South Texas and Miami Dade County in Florida. Pregnant women should consider postponing travel to these areas.

In addition to routine screening protocols for its pregnant patients, Legacy has included Zika awareness into its “Becoming a Mom” pre-natal classes and is ramping up bilingual public education efforts. The best way to prevent the virus is to wear insect repellant with DEET, and using condoms during sex.

Zika virus is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that was first identified in Uganda in 1947 in monkeys through a network that monitored yellow fever. It was later identified in humans in 1952 in Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania.

The first large outbreak of disease caused by Zika infection was reported from the Island of Yap (Federated States of Micronesia) in 2007. In July 2015 Brazil reported an association between Zika virus infection and Guillain-Barré syndrome.