NEW YORK (Sputnik) — A second case of the Zika virus has been confirmed in New York City and additional cases are likely to emerge, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) said in a statement on Tuesday.
"To date, there have been three confirmed New York City cases: 1 in 2013 and 2 in 2016," the statement noted. "It is likely that there are other cases that were not reported."
Lack of available commercial testing, along with the possibility that some patients did not seek medical care, likely led to some cases going unreported, according to the statement.
The recent outbreak of the infection started in Brazil in 2015, leading to several deaths and hundreds of cases of micro-encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain that affected the growth and development of the fetus.
The Zika virus was first detected in 1947 in monkeys and Africa, and has since then caused several short outbreaks in Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands.
