In other recent Zika news, experts have wondered if the virus might sometimes be transmitted through blood transfusions, and a cluster of infections in Brazil seems to support that notion. As of August 17, there were 33 cases of non-travel-related infections in the state.
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The number of cases in the military could be much higher.
Zika virus is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that was first identified in Uganda in 1947 in monkeys through a network that monitored yellow fever.
None of the people infected in Miami Beach have traveled to Zika-infected regions, which suggests that mosquitos in the area of Miami Beach are infected and spreading the virus.
As the Zika virus disease spreads into Miami Beach, and threatens to spread north along the Florida Coast, stories in the news media often make it seem that the virus is new.
The Florida health department issued its daily Zika report, announcing that two new local Zika infections had been confirmed in Miami-Dade, both of them outside of Miami’s Wynwood area.
At least five people, including two city residents and three tourists, have contracted Zika virus from mosquitoes in Miami Beach, Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced Friday as he identified a 1.5-square-mile zone of active transmission.
According to officials, the cauction has been extended to all of Miami because more than two cases have been reported outside of the Wynwood and Miami Beach areas, and they suspect that mosquitoes are spreading the virus faster and wider than initial assumptions.
“If you’re concerned about Zika”, CDC Director Tom Frieden said, “you may consider postponing all nonessential travel to all parts of Miami-Dade County”.
Throughout Miami-Dade County, a vast area with two million residents and 20,000 pregnant women, “there is the possibility that there could be transmission that hasn’t yet been identified”, Frieden said during a conference call. Reportedly these guidelines are based on that fact that the Zika virus can live in semen for around 93 days after infection.
The discovery of Zika-carrying mosquitoes in South Florida certainly isn’t ideal for tourism, but local officials and business leaders are confident the long-term impact on the tourism industry will be minor. The Pentagon called for monitoring, trapping, testing and eliminating water sources as breeding grounds. However, the department also is investigating over six other infections outside that area.
Earlier this month, government-funded human trials began on a possible Zika virus vaccine. “We put this in place once the news started getting insane”.
Doctors at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research have also been working separately on a Zika virus vaccine.
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Among them was a circus brought in by a brewery, he said.
