“They can help students become ambassadors and help prevent the spread of Zika“, Stewart said.
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A comparison of those numbers to the department’s August 2 Zika Weekly Surveillance Report shows that there were 32 new confirmed cases on St. Thomas, three on St. Croix and one on St. John. Her baby acquired the virus while in the womb and was born with microcephaly, a rare congenital condition that can cause an abnormally small head and underdeveloped brain. Fifty-seven of those cases are in pregnant women. Thousands of such cases have been reported in Latin America, especially Brazil.
Puerto Rico reported the first microcephaly case acquired on US soil in May, involving a dead fetus that a woman turned over to health authorities.
Four square blocks in the Wynwood neighborhood in Miami have been cleared and therefore the size of the area where Zika transmission is believed to be ongoing has been reduced, officials from the governor’s office and the Florida Department of Health said earlier today.
The CDC recommends women who are pregnant or are considering becoming pregnant postpone travel to areas where there is widespread Zika infection. Reports are suggesting that twenty people in Palm Beach County were affected by the Zika virus because they had traveled to these countries.
The CDPH said the two women were infected with the Zika virus after spending time in a country where the virus is endemic. That includes 479 pregnant women. Another $5.2 million in contractual services have been approved, including $4.9 million for local mosquito control.
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett doubted the efficiency of that program and said he would work with local and state officials as well as corporate partners to get the spray directly to residents.
At the end of June, a $1.9 billion funding bill to combat the spread of the virus failed in Congress, after Democrats voted it down over Republican-added riders that would have also restricted Planned Parenthood and allowed the Confederate flag at veterans cemeteries. The U.S. surgeon general is urging Puerto Rico on Thursday, Aug. 11, to step up its public education campaign against Zika as he warned that 25 percent of the island will be infected with the mosquito-borne virus by year’s end.
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There is no vaccine available for the virus so far, but researchers are working to develop one that could be ready for public distribution in 2017.
