The case in the St. Petersburg area – Pinellas County – was among five new cases of Zika announced Tuesday contracted within Florida.
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The first transmitted infection case of the Zika Virus in the Bay area was confirmed Tuesday, although officials have not announced the exact location within Pinellas County of the case as officials conduct a door-to-door search.
The current Zika outbreak was first detected previous year in Brazil, where the virus has been linked to more than 1,800 cases of microcephaly, which can cause severe developmental problems.
In addition, pregnant women can pass Zika – which is known to cause microcephaly, a severe birth defect affecting brain development – to her unborn baby, CDC officials said.
At the Wilkes-Barre City Health Department, there are prevention kits available for free to women that are pregnant.
“There is no vaccine or medicine for Zika virus”, the press release reads.
Patrick McDonnell, the acting secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, says his agency is also monitoring the growing number of Zika cases in Pennsylvania. But it’s too soon to know, and Florida Governor Rick Scott and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have yet to issue a travel advisory for that area indicating there is active local transmission.
“These data show evidence for Zika virus transmission by means of [blood] platelet transfusion”, reported a team led by Dr. Iara Motta, of the Jose Alencar Gomes da Silva National Cancer Institute in Rio de Janeiro, and Bryan Spencer of the American Red Cross in Dedham, Mass.
Things are much worse in the USA territory of Puerto Rico, where federal health officials have declared a public health emergency because Zika is spreading so rapidly among residents there. Brazil, especially, has reported the vast majority of cases of Zika-linked microcephaly.
The non-travel distinction is important because, as NBC notes, “if a person was infected and has had no contact with a traveler from an affected area, it strongly suggests mosquitoes locally are infected and can spread the virus”. The virus has spread rapidly throughout Latin America and the Caribbean – including the US territory Puerto Rico – since 2015.
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Zika can also be spread through sex, so partners of women who are pregnant or trying to get pregnant should also follow precautions.
