The Florida Health Department “is conducting an investigation into a possible non-travel related case of Zika virus in Miami-Dade County”, it said in a statement.
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The FDOH, which is working with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, haven’t said what part of the county the potential case is in.
The statement said the department would be providing Zika prevention kits and repellent in the county and in the area of investigation.
“It’s important to raise awareness in these situations and re-emphasize that the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] has stated that, if you are pregnant, you should not travel to areas impacted by Zika”. The kits also are available at the Miami-Dade health department.
Zika virus was first identified in 1947 but is poorly understood, and there remains no vaccine to prevent it or medicine to treat it. If that person comes into this country and sexually transmits it to their partner or they transmit it their unborn fetus, that is still considered travel-related.
As of mid-July, there have been 1,306 cases of Zika in the continental United States, almost all involving people who had traveled to areas in Latin America and the Caribbean basin that are affected by the current outbreak.
Worryingly, lab tests showed he had “uniquely high amounts of virus – more than 100,000 times higher than seen in other samples of infected people – in his blood”, the CDC said. The baby has since been born and did not have the rare neurological condition that causes babies to have smaller-than-normal heads and incomplete brain development.
Last month at a conference on the Zika virus in South Florida, top medical experts said it’s not a matter of if the virus makes it to Florida, but when. A person who cared for a Zika-infected relative in Utah also got the virus, .
The CDC recommends that all people who are traveling to areas where Zika virus is found, should take precautions to avoid mosquito bites to reduce their risk of infection with Zika virus as well as other mosquito-borne viruses such as dengue and chikungunya.
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Zika virus is most unsafe to pregnant women, because it can cause severe birth defects in babies if they are infected in the womb.
