The CDC on Tuesday announced $16 million in grants to 40 states and US territories to monitor birth defects associated with Zika, a virus often transmitted to humans via mosquito bites. The others had no symptoms.
Advertisement
It’s been hard to read the news without hearing something about the Zika virus.
Despite this crisis and pleas from the medical community, Republicans in Congress have chosen to put politics above public health and restrict certain family planning providers from being part of the solution to address the Zika virus.
“He said nothing hurts; he doesn’t have any pain”. Rosemary Jean said her father, Gabriel, is one of them.
More than 1,650 cases of Zika have been reported in USA states.
So far, the 1,658 Zika infections reported in the United States mainly have been linked to travel to countries with Zika outbreaks in Latin America or the Caribbean.
Florida health officials said they have tested more than 200 people in Miami-Dade and Broward counties since early July.
The Zika virus causes flu-like symptoms like fever and rash, and is mostly transferred by mosquito bites, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“While I encourage all residents and visitors to continue to use precaution by draining standing water and wearing bug spray, Florida remains safe and open for business”, Scott said in a statement.
CDC spokesperson, Tom Skinner, says that a total of 14 people in the outskirts of Miami were found to have been infected with the virus. “It’s kind of freaky. We’re just the front of it”, Scott said during a news conference.
“I use bleach and alcohol at nighttime before I go to bed on my skin”.
On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instructed pregnant women to avoid the neighborhood, marking what is believed to be the first time in the agency’s 70-year history that it warned people not to travel somewhere in the U.S. Zika primarily causes microcephaly and incomplete brain growth, but also other conditions, including fetal death, miscarriage and ocular abnormalities predominantly when infection occurs within the first trimester of pregnancy.
And because the virus can linger in sperm, men should wait six months before attempting to impregnate a partner.
The travel warning covers an area of about one square mile, which health officials said was large enough to provide a buffer zone. So with the Zika virus in the neighborhood, the Miami Police Department homeless coordinator immediately thought of those who were nearly always at risk of exposure to mosquitoes.
Duval County OB/GYN doctors are also being urged to screen pregnant women who travel to areas known to have Zika-carrying mosquitoes, including Midtown Miami.
Advertisement
Despite the travel warning, the governor also encouraged people to visit Florida, promising to “take care of you” and keep people well-informed.
