New Jersey Is Now One Of The Top States With Zika Virus As New Fears Arise

New Jersey is now among the states with the highest number of Zika virus cases, coming in sixth overall — just behind Pennsylvania — as new fears about the disease have arisen.

All of the cases were travel-related, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC number of 66 conflicts with what the Department of Health is saying. The department reported that 100 confirmed cases of Zika have been found in New Jersey.

CDC officials say their number is slower to catch up to the state's own reported count, but either way you slice it, New Jersey is among the top six states with Zika cases in the United States.

Read more: Pennsylvania Is Now One Of The Top States With Zika Virus

The news comes as The New York Times has reported that the Zika virus can attack and destroy parts of babies' brains.

New Jersey now has tripled the number of Zika cases the state had from the beginning of the summer, officials say. In mid-June, when there were 27, according to the state Department of Health data.

CDC spokesman Benjamin Haynes said he's not sure where the discrepancy is, explaining that the CDC number is based on what is laboratory-confirmed and reported to ArboNET.

"It’s possible they didn’t report by the time we pulled for this week’s update," he told Patch. "In any case, I would go with the state number."

Here is the list of states in order, according to the CDC:

1. New York 579
2. Florida 405
3. California 137
4. Texas 108
5. Pennsylvania 69
6. New Jersey 66
7. Maryland 64
8. Virginia 62
9. Massachusetts 59
10. Connecticut 49
11. Georgia 48
12. Illinois 45
13. North Carolina 35
14. Ohio 33
15. Tennessee 33
16. Minnesota 31
17. South Carolina 31
18. Michigan 25
19. Rhode Island 25
20. Indiana 24
21. Louisiana 23
22. Colorado 21
23. Wisconsin 20
24. Oklahoma 19
25. Washington 19
26. Missouri 18
27. Arizona 17
28. Mississippi 17
29. Oregon 14
30. Iowa 13
31. Nevada 13
32. Alabama 11
33. Delaware 10
34. Hawaii 10
35. Kentucky 10
36. West Virginia 10
37. Arkansas 9
38. Kansas 9
39. Maine 9
40. New Hampshire 8
41. Nebraska 6
42. Utah 6
43. Vermont 6
44. Montana 4
45. New Mexico 3
46. Idaho 1
47. North Dakota 1

Patch photo