Zika, the virus that sparked widespread concern last year? It’s on the wane, at least for now.
The number of people infected with Zika is down substantially this year in upstate and the rest of New York, reflecting a precipitous drop in mosquito-borne virus infections in Puerto Rico and other overseas locations.
New York has reported 155 Zika infections at last count, a figure that’s 56 percent lower than at the same point last year. Only 30 of them have been in upstate New York, including just one case in Monroe County. Monroe ended last year with 22 Zika cases, far more than any other upstate county.
The same scenario is playing out elsewhere in the United States, for the same basic reason — the Zika infection rate has cratered in some one-time hot spots in just 12 months’ time. That has made it considerably less likely that Americans will pick up the virus while traveling abroad this summer.
And with fewer Americans bringing the virus home with them, local transmission of Zika in the United States has become much less likely.