National health officials last Friday announced that mosquitoes have apparently started spreading Zika on the US mainland, citing four cases they strongly believe were caused by bites.
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“Their team will consist of public health experts whose role is to augment our response efforts to confirmed local transmissions of the Zika virus”, he added.
The state said it began investigating its first suspected case of locally transmitted Zika on July 7.
The advisory encourages women who are pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant to avoid unnecessary travel to the impacted area, just north of downtown Miami.
The state’s department of health believes that active transmission of the virus is now limited to a one-square-mile area in Miami-Dade County, just north of Miami’s downtown. And men who have Zika symptoms should wait at least six months before trying to impregnate a partner. Locally acquired cases involve transmission of the virus through mosquito bites.
“Women who were in this area and left this area recently should wait at least eight weeks before trying to get pregnant”, Frieden said during a news conference today.
Although Zika is largely spread by mosquitoes, both men and women can transmit the virus sexually.
Zika infections in pregnant women can cause severe brain-related birth defects, including extremely small skulls. Still, the city advised that New Yorkers remove standing outdoor water, use repellent when appropriate, and avoid mosquito-dense areas.
The number of Zika-infected people in the Miami outbreak area rapidly climbed from 4 to 14 over the weekend, leading the Centers for Disease Control to warn pregnant women to stay away from the area.
Despite the daily use of spraying to control the local mosquitoes, Florida vector control specialists are still seeing a lot of mosquito larvae and high numbers of the aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads Zika.
“The blood donors who come to us are healthy”, said Evans, “but they may have Zika virus, because 80 percent of the people who contract Zika are asymptomatic”.
Christopher Bibbs, an education specialist with Anastasia Mosquito Control, said it’s more likely people will bring the disease to the area – and they might not even realize it, because the disease often carries no symptoms. Ten more cases have since been confirmed.
The Associated Press reports that “of the 14 people infected, two are women and 12 are men”.
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Gerrell also said that the company is working with Brevard County’s health department and will notify them about any potential cases of the virus. The virus can cause fever, aching muscles and joints and red eyes.
