Mary Stachyra Lopez is a staff reporter covering business, public safety, education, and other community issues for Local News Now. She has previously worked at Patch.com, the Arlington Catholic Herald, and The Atlantic.
Several health departments, including Fairfax County’s, are investigating Virginia’s first documented case of a locally acquired dengue virus infection, the Virginia Department of Health said yesterday (Aug. 4).
The Fairfax, Loudoun, and Virginia health departments are investigating the case. While the patient did not have any known travel outside of the state prior to onset of the illness, they were “in close proximity to a recent internationally acquired case in a Virginian who was diagnosed a couple weeks prior,” Cameron Webb, the State Health Commissioner, wrote to clinicians in a notice posted online.