“The trucks headed to the area’s two Zika hot zones: Wynwood, Miami’s hip arts district, where the U.S.’s first locally transmitted case of the virus was discovered in July, and a 20-block stretch of Miami Beach”, Bloomberg reported.
Advertisement
Mosquitoes in Miami-Dade County have tested positive for the Zika virus – a first in the continental U.S.
The discovery was “disappointing, but not surprising”, Adam Putnam, the state’s commissioner of agriculture, said in a statement.
The samples were found in the 1.5 mile radius in the Miami Beach area, which was the first area to have active transmissions in the state.
In addition to the two local infections reported on Thursday, state health officials also confirmed seven more travel-related cases, including three in Miami-Dade, two in Broward, and one each in Osceola and Sarasota counties. We are working with our testing partners to meet the 12-week implementation window for the new Zika virus test. Together we can contain and eliminate all cases of Zika.
Singapore’s cramped urban setting has made it a vulnerable target for spread of the mosquito-borne Zika virus, but the disease has proven to be mild and most of the people have recovered.
The infected person, who is a non-pregnant female, recently returned from traveling to an area with on-going Zika transmission by mosquitoes. “We need Congress to do its part to provide the necessary emergency resources to properly combat the spread of this virus”.
He also mentioned that scientists were still learning about this new disease, citing unobvious symptoms of Zika.
The Zika epidemic is blamed on the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which transmits the Zika virus – along with dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever.
“There’s the possibility that you could have a surge in mosquitoes, and if we then have introductions of Zika into those populations, we could potentially have spread to people”, Schaffner explained.
Singapore already has 115 confirmed cases as of Wednesday, at least one of whom is a pregnant woman, according to government officials.
A second batch of mosquito traps from Miami Beach is now being tested for more evidence of Zika virus.
The disease has also been linked to complications in babies, such as microcephaly, where the fetus’ brain does not fully develop, and the rare paralysis-inducing auto-immune disease Guillian-Barré Syndrome.
Advertisement
More than 164,000 confirmed and suspected cases of Zika and nearly 1,500 cases of the Guillain-Barre syndrome were reported from April 2015 to March 2016 in Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Suriname and Venezuela.
