The local health department is searching for other potential infections, with more than 2,300 people tested so far in the state, is ramping up mosquito control programs and is distributing Zika protection kits to pregnant women at their doctors’ offices, Florida officials said.
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“This morning we learned that four people in our state likely have the Zika virus as a result of a mosquito bite”, Rick Scott said. He said that there are likely to additional cases of the infection. The virus causes fever, rash and pain, and it also causes severe birth defects when pregnant women contract the virus through mosquito bites or from a partner. Other states have quickly called in CDC teams to help track high-profile diseases.
“If I were a pregnant woman right now, I would go on the assumption that there’s mosquito transmission all over the Miami area”, warned Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical medicine expert at the Baylor College of Medicine.
Four different cases of the Zika virus have been detected in Florida and according to the State Department of Health, those cases could have been transmitted locally through mosquitoes. The current outbreak was first detected in Brazil a year ago and has since spread rapidly through the Americas.
The state officials and the CDC said that now the area where the Zika the cases have been detected is just limited to the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami.
The medical director of England’s public health agency said officials there weren’t surprised by the outbreak in Florida. Dr Marc Fischer, a CDC epidemiologist, has gone to Florida at the state’s request. The US already has over 1,600 cases of the Zika virus, but these are believed to have been transmitted overseas before the victim returned home. PHE has said while in many nations in South America, like the Olympics sponsor Brazil, it truly is high, the danger in the southern USA state is moderate.
“This means Florida has become the first state in the nation to have local transmission of the Zika virus”, Scott said at a press conference.
“This is not just a Florida issue; it’s a national issue”.
Frieden said the evidence suggests that the mosquito-borne transmission occurred several weeks ago over several city blocks.
“I’m freaking out. but at the same time I don’t want to freak out”, said Wynwood resident Zoe Schultze as she cradled her 6-month-old son in her arms while she stopped for coffee with her husband.
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Pregnant Americans are warned not to visit 30 countries – including Brazil, which is now hosting the summer Olympic Games – along with Mexico, Venezuela and even the United States Virgin Islands! But that is very hard to do, it is like finding a needle in a hay stack. “Currently, GCHD is tracking three different species of mosquitoes and reports those number in its West Nile Virus and Zika Virus Situation Report”.
