This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The first American has died from complications related to the Zika virus, health officials with the Centers for Disease Control reported late Friday.

A Puerto Rican man in his 70s died in February from “complications related to severe thrombocytopenia”, the CDC reported in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The man, from the San Juan area, fell ill with the Zika virus and experienced symptoms including fever, rash and joint pain. After recovering from the Zika symptoms, the man then developed immune thrombocytopenic purpura, or ITP, an autoimmune disorder that has been linked to the virus. The bleeding disorder that killed him was as a side-effect of the ITP.

“Although Zika virus–associated deaths are rare, the first identified death in Puerto Rico highlights the possibility of severe cases, as well as the need for continued outreach to raise health care providers’ awareness of complications that might lead to severe disease or death,” reports the CDC in its findings.

Thrombocytopenia is a bleeding disorder that causes deficiencies in blood platelets, as antibodies that would attack the virus turn against the platelets that help clotting.

Research so far has shown Zika itself to be a relatively mild and short-term disease, but secondary infections and transmissions have been linked to deaths and birth defects. Three people infected with Zika in Colombia who died earlier this year showed symptoms of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological disorder, , and earlier this month the CDC confirmed Zika’s relation to abnormally small heads in infants.

“It’s of high public health importance that we figure this out and, as quickly as we can, design some interventions to stop it,” said Tyler Sharp, a CDC epidemiologist working in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Sharp has also said that the death had not been reported earlier so that researchers could check into the man’s medical background and speak with family members.

Zika first began spreading in Puerto Rico in December. More than 6,150 people have been tested for infection, with 683 found to have current or recent traces of Zika in Puerto Rico. The median age of those infected is 34.

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The island imported all blood products during 5 March to 14 April from the mainland US to ensure the safety of blood.

“To ensure continued blood safety, blood collection resumed with a donor screening program for Zika virus infection, and all units screened positive are removed,” the CDC wrote in its report.

No incidents of microcephaly, the severe birth defect where babies are born with shrunken heads and brain damage, have yet been reported in Puerto Rico, although one has occurred in the mainland US. The CDC said 65 pregnant women in Puerto Rico had been found to have symptoms of the virus since November.

Congress is considering nearly $2bn in emergency funding to combat the virus and prevent its spread, but the plan has stalled because of opposition from hardline conservatives. Concern is especially high in southern states such as Florida, where summer and fall conditions are ripe for mosquitoes, which are the virus’s primary mode of transmission.



Reuters contributed to this report