Almost all the cases were acquired by people traveling outside the country to areas where Zika is spread by mosquitoes, according to the CDC, which said 15 cases were sexually transmitted and one was acquired through laboratory exposure.
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Two hundred thousand dollars in new funds from the Centers for Disease Control will dovetail with existing mosquito abatement programs.
“When and if there is a case of local transmission, we work with local health departments to identify additional cases to define the geographic scope of the outbreak”, he said.
It will also support participation in the U.S. Zika Pregnancy Registry to monitor pregnant women with Zika and their infants, as well as Zika-related activities in U.S. -Mexico border states, said Frieden.
The case is in Broward County, which neighbors Miami-Dade, where the first such investigation continues.
The money will begin to be distributed next month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal government said Thursday.
The money comes after reports of the first possible non-sexual transmission of the mosquito-borne virus in the United States.
The White House said in a news release Wednesday that President Barack Obama had spoken by phone with Florida Gov. Rick Scott regarding the new Zika case. But a recent Florida Zika case might be the first local transmission case in the country – meaning that it may have been carried by local mosquitoes rather than contracted by sexual intercourse or a mosquito bite in a Zika-affected country. The agency said this week that Florida and local officials are leading the investigation, and that the CDC has provided funding, including $2 million for Zika preparedness and another $5.6 million awarded this week. If the virus is there, they want to prevent its spread.
The scientists, from a leading Brazilian research institute known as the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, discovered the Zika traces in Culex mosquitoes captured in and around the northeastern Brazilian city of Recife, capital of the state that was hit hardest by the Zika outbreak since past year. Miami-Dade County Mosquito Control Operations Manager Chalmers Vasquez said inspectors are trying to get into every backyard to spray and eliminate breeding sites. Since that case doesn’t involve travel or sex, it has raised more questions about how the virus might spread.
Nadja Mayerle with the Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District collects a mosquito trap Tuesday, July 19, 2016, near the marshes, in Salt Lake City.
There is no vaccine for Zika.
Fifteen people became infected through sex with people who contracted Zika while traveling overseas.
“The great majority of them are in travelers who were in an area with Zika and bitten by an aedes aegypti mosquito and returned”. However, it has been linked to the severe birth defect called microcephaly.
Health officials worldwide have advised people preparing to have children not to travel to areas where the risk of Zika is high.
Zika virus has spread through dozens of countries in Latin America.
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More than 1,300 Zika illnesses have been reported in the 50 US states and the District of Columbia.
