US probes first apparent non-sexual person-to-person Zika transmission and first domestic outbreak

A Utah man who cared for an elderly male relative infected with Zika virus has tested positive for the disease, despite not traveling to any known Zika zone. The case has raised new questions about how the disease may spread. It came in a week when the first apparent US case from local mosquito bite appeared in Florida, and a week after the first report of female-to-male sexual transmission in New York.

In the Utah case the original patient, who contracted the disease abroad, has now died, the first death in a person with Zika virus in continental United States. The exact cause of death has not been attributed, as he had comorbid conditions. His death was preceded by severe thrombocytopenia. Thrombocytopenia was also present in a man with Zika virus who died in Puerto Rico last week.

The younger Utah patient recovered after a brief fever with rash. Health officials were …