Mosquitoes that can carry Zika exist in Kansas, but transmission still unlikely

If the Zika virus spreads across the U.S., Kansas mosquitoes could be among the carriers.

A medical journal called PLOS Currents published a report about where species exist in the U.S. that have the potential to carry Zika. The two species of mosquitoes that can carry the virus are Aedes ageypti and Aedes albopictus.

Both species are found in Kansas – along with much of the southeastern and southern parts of the U.S.

But that doesn’t mean the disease would come to Kansas, even if it does spread in the U.S. And the journal doesn’t claim the U.S. will have an outbreak.

Instead, it published the report to help local health departments understand baseline risks for Zika virus.

Zika generally induces mild symptoms that last up to a week in healthy adults. But for pregnant women, the virus can cause babies to be born with abnormally small heads, causing developmental issues and sometimes death.

The CDC discourages pregnant women, or women considering pregnancy, from traveling to countries with the Zika virus – Central and South America and the Caribbean. The center also recommends physicians screen pregnant women who visited countries known to have the virus.

Ingrid Garrison, state public health veterinarian for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, compared the situation to other mosquito illnesses.

The same kind of mosquitoes that carry Zika can also carry dengue, Chikungunya and yellow fever.

Those three diseases have been reported in Kansas by people who got infected elsewhere. The diseases have never been transmitted within Kansas, Garrison said.

She said the U.S. has some societal differences that help limit the spread of mosquito illnesses: weekly trash removal, air conditioning and screened windows.

But the rapid spread of Zika in South America has not allowed much time for researchers to yet fully understand how it spreads and which climates are conducive to the virus.

Garrison said Kansas’ warm weather this year might cause mosquitoes to appear earlier than usual. She said people should start now to prevent mosquito breeding and bites.

State plans

The state sets mosquito traps around Sedgwick County to track mosquitoes and mosquito-borne viruses in the area.

In 2013, the most recent data available, the species of mosquito that can carry Zika accounted for 3 percent of the mosquitoes caught in traps. But that number is likely low.

Christopher Rogers, research associate for the Kansas Biological Survey at the University of Kansas, said that, right now, the state’s mosquito traps don’t target species that carry Zika because the traps are designed mostly to catch the kind of mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus.

Unlike mosquitoes that carry West Nile, which often bite at night, mosquitoes that can carry Zika also bite during the day.

Rogers said he hopes the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more funding to Kansas so he can place mosquito traps that specifically target the species that can carry Zika.

He said finding those mosquitoes happens by chance now. Based off those traps, he said, it appears those mosquitoes live in eastern Kansas, where there are more trees and forested areas.

Traps that target Zika-carrying species of mosquitoes would allow Rogers to more fully study where those mosquitoes live and which areas of the state could be most at risk.

He said mosquito monitoring starts in May and that he would likely find out whether the state receives extra funding in the next month or so.

Kansas had its first confirmed case of the Zika virus in early March, when a resident tested positive for the virus after returning from a trip out of the country.

All the cases in the U.S. thus far have been from people who traveled to countries with Zika. None of the cases originated from within the U.S.

This story was originally published March 21, 2016 at 7:37 PM with the headline "Mosquitoes that can carry Zika exist in Kansas, but transmission still unlikely."