“Part of the reason we’re seeing an increase in the numbers is because people are becoming more aware, talking to their doctors and getting tested”, said Dr. Arturo Brito, the department’s deputy commissioner. It is meant to promote an immune response that would protect against the mosquito-borne virus that can cause devastating birth defects, according to a statement from the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
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An unconfirmed number of people in Scotland have been diagnosed as having the Zika virus, the Scottish Government has confirmed.
Florida is now offering free Zika testing for pregnant women.
The number of confirmed Zika virus cases in New Jersey has almost tripled since mid-June, but the threat of local transmission remains low, according to state health officials.
While mosquitoes that can carry the virus have been found in 12 California counties, there is no evidence these mosquitoes are transmitting Zika in the state at this time, the department says.
“Despite the daily use of spraying, the vector control experts there were still seeing new larval mosquitoes and moderately high Aedes aegypti counts, which is not something that we had hoped to see”, Frieden said.
Govenor Rick Scott zig-zagged around Wynwood on Thursday morning, talking with local business owners about what the state can do to combat the spread of Zika.
Out of 500,000 expected travelers to Rio for the Olympic Games, only a maximum of 37 people are predicted to contract Zika and return home while still contagious, said study co-author Gregg Gonsalves, a lecturer at Yale Law School and co-director of the Global Health Justice Partnership.
At six, Florida is the only state with confirmed locally-acquired cases. These infections are thought to have occurred because the patients’ partners had traveled to countries where Zika is circulating, the CDC said.
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Nineteen other pregnant women in California infected with Zika are being monitored.
