NY Woman Diagnosed With Zika Warns, You 'Think That It’s Not Going to Happen to You'
“I was just feeling so lifeless, my body so achy," she told "GMA."
— -- Fresh off a five day trip in tropical paradise, Harper’s Bazaar senior digital editor, Chrissy Rutherford, returned home with one scary souvenir.
“You sort of think that it’s not going to happen to you,” Rutherford of New York City told ABC News.
She was on a train heading to a wedding three days after arriving home from her Jamaican vacation when she first really started to notice her systems.
“I’m sitting on the train and I start taking a selfie as one does as they’re on a train by themselves on the way to a wedding,” she said of the alarming experience. “When I saw my skin, my heart just started pounding.”
Her face had broken out in a rash, a symptom that appeared after she had already been experiencing two days of leg soreness and joint stiffness.
“A light bulb I guess just went off in my head and I thought, ‘I think I could have Zika virus,’” Rutherford recalled.
After a Google search of Zika symptoms and two trips to the doctor, a urine test confirmed her fears. She had contracted Zika.
More than 750 people in 45 states have reported cases of Zika, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The virus spreads through mosquito bites and can be transmitted through unprotected sex, which presents risks for pregnant women, including links to birth defects for their unborn babies.
With no prescription treatment to cure Zika, Rutherford spent the next 10 days suffering through her illness.
“I was just feeling so lifeless, my body so achy and I knew that even once I got up on my feet, it was going to be painful,” she explained.
Now, nearly two weeks later, Rutherford said she’s finally starting to feel like herself and ready to share her experience with her readers at Harper’s Bazaar.
“A lot of people aren’t aware what it’s like to have this virus,” she said.
Rutherford admits she did not wear bug spray while on her trip, which is something experts strongly recommend.
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