Zika can cause serious birth defects in babies due to microcephaly, a condition characterized by small heads and under-developed brains.
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Florida’s caseload of Zika spread by Miami mosquitoes has risen to 25, and USA health officials continue to warn pregnant women to avoid the infection zone despite the governor’s assurances that the area of concern is shrinking.
Meanwhile, aerial spraying that began last week rapidly killed adult mosquitoes that ground-applied pesticides could not reach, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, told the Associated Press. Its arrival in the continental United States had been widely anticipated.
The virus is most seen in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Lastly, patients should use condoms if they have sex with someone who has traveled to Zika-infected countries or the Miami neighborhood where local Zika has been found, she said.
The actual number of people infected with Zika in Puerto Rico is likely higher, officials said Friday, because most people with a Zika infection have no symptoms and might not seek testing.
Most of the would-be visitors to Florida seem undeterred by the Zika news.
Women who have traveled to these areas should wait at least eight weeks before trying to get pregnant. It is meant to trigger an immune response that would protect against the mosquito-borne virus, according to a statement from the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Puerto Rico is facing a looming Zika epidemic with 6,475 cases, only 30 of which weren’t locally acquired, according to the CDC.
Two locally transmitted Zika cases have been identified in Broward and one in Palm Beach, but it is not clear whether mosquitoes transmitted those infections in the two counties or in Miami-Dade.
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Kids returning to school in a Miami neighborhood linked to Zika infections will be allowed to wear trousers and long-sleeved shirts that don’t match their school uniforms, but still can’t bring mosquito repellant to campus. “So, people who are looking to travel to potentially affected areas really need to check the CDC website and make some informed decisions, particularly if they are pregnant, thinking of becoming pregnant or are a sexual partner of someone who may become pregnant”.
