The Army and Coast Guard are bearing the brunt of Zika infections among military personnel and their families, accounting for more than half the 75 cases since May, according to data released by the Pentagon.
Of the troops, family members and retirees confirmed to have contracted the virus as of Aug. 17, 37 are soldiers or their dependents, and 17 are Coast Guardsmen or their family members.
According to the Defense Department report, 55 troops, including active duty, National Guard and reservists, have been diagnosed with Zika, as have 12 family members and eight military retirees.
The Air Force has seen 11 cases, the Navy, six, and the Marine Corps, four cases.
Among those patients are a pregnant active-duty service member. The Defense Department has declined to discuss the case, citing privacy laws.
Zika is known to cause severe birth defects, including brain deformities, in developing fetuses.
According to the Defense Department, the cases all were acquired outside of the continental United States.
On Tuesday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced that four new cases of Zika have been found in the Miami area and a new case of locally acquired Zika was detected in Tampa, bringing the number of nontravel-related cases of the virus to 43 in the United States.
More than 2,200 Americans have been diagnosed with Zika in the U.S. and 8,000 cases in the U.S. territories since the outbreak was detected late last year, according to the CDC.
U.S. military installation managers began aggressively monitoring for the species of mosquitoes that can carry Zika and other diseases in March.
Nearly 200 installations are in areas where mosquitoes capable of carrying Zika are found.
While no mosquitoes have tested positive for Zika on military bases, the Navy has obtained positive tests for West Nile virus at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center campus in Bethesda, Maryland, and at Joint Naval Weapons Station Charleston, South Carolina, but no human cases of that mosquito-borne disease have occurred.
Zika is in a family of viruses that also cause dengue fever, chikungunya and yellow fever. In the past month, one Navy sailor has contracted dengue, according to the Armed Forces Communicable Disease Weekly Report.
Two soldiers contracted malaria, a parasitic disease also carried by mosquitoes, between July 10 and Aug. 6, the report noted.
Defense Department officials have
including using insect repellent, wearing long sleeves and trousers and staying in air conditioned buildings.
Patricia Kime is a senior writer covering military and veterans health care, medicine and personnel issues.
