According to state data, as of Friday, there have been 10 travel-related cases of Zika in Alameda County, seven in nearby Contra Costa County and 10 in San Francisco County.
Advertisement
The federal dollars are used to fund the health department’s efforts in each county, including epidemiologists, planners and laboratories and equipment, said Philip, the state surgeon general.
Eight new cases have been recorded in the last week, a Pentagon official told CNN.
U.S. concerns over the Zika virus – which has hit Brazil the hardest – have risen since Florida authorities reported the first signs of local transmission in a neighbourhood in Miami.
Physicians in Miami and beyond have seen this week a spike in concerned calls from pregnant women, particularly after health officials advised them not to travel to Wynwood and said any expecting mothers who had done so since mid-June should be tested for Zika. There is no vaccine or medicine for Zika.
Zika is spread by mosquitos but can also be spread by unprotected sex.
CDC clinical criteria for Zika virus infection testing include a history of clinical signs and symptoms associated with Zika virus infection. But Chalmers Vasquez, Miami-Dade’s mosquito control manager, said all of the insects found inside the 16 traps placed throughout the designated zone were found dead.
Of 1,658 Zika cases nationally, 433 involve pregnant women, as of July 21, according to the city’s release.
“Zika virus infection during pregnancy poses a serious threat to the fetus and can cause microcephaly, and because of that, it is urgent that we monitor rapidly and completely birth defects that might be related to Zika”, says Margaret Honein, chief of the CDC’s Birth Defects Branch and co-lead on the Pregnancy and Birth Defects Task Force in the agency’s Zika response. “I understand for pregnant women, but that’s being misinterpreted as don’t travel to Miami, don’t go to Wynwood”.
“These cases emphasize the most severe risks of Zika infection, which will result in mild, if any, symptoms for the vast majority of people”.
A call to CDPH seeking more information Friday had not been returned by press time.
The warnings raised anxiety in a city already on high alert for Zika’s arrival from Latin America, where it has spread quickly since first being detected in Brazil past year.
Advertisement
Neither Frieden nor Scott provided a number or ratio of mosquitoes killed by aerial spraying of the insecticide Naled over Wynwood early Thursday.
