But the threat of Zika, a virus capable of causing devastating birth defects, is bringing the mosquito new attention.
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On Friday, the governor’s office announced he would be heading to the nation’s capital city September 13-14 to finally make an in-person push to pass a Zika funding package.
So far, none of the mosquitoes in the state has tested positive for Zika, but the human population has not been so lucky.
A new travel-related Zika virus case was confirmed in Hillsborough County Friday along with 11 others across the state. In fact, four in five don’t even feel sick after being infected.
The new case include two in Alachua County and one in Marion County.
“Up until recently, we have not really considered infectious diseases a critical component of public health preparedness and emergency response at the federal level”, Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, recently told Vox.
Stephanie Brown, 31, of Lacey does not want to take any chances of exposing her family to the virus.
When money is available to municipalities, Greer said, those departments often don’t get a big slice: “It’s easy to see how a local government might say we’re going to fix the potholes or we’re going to hire police sooner than saying we’re going to hire an epidemiologist or we’re going to start trying to build up our vector control capacities”.
Aerial spraying, in combination with dropping pellets to kill larval mosquitoes, is the only way to reach remote areas of the Keys, Leal said.
“It’s hard to think of much that’s less glamorous than looking for stagnant water, which is what mosquito abatement district people do”, he said.
Florida has seen 56 local transmissions of the zika virus which can cause neurological abnormalities in unborn babies. Both were not immediately available to discuss the Zika. “We will continue to work in close collaboration with the health and environmental experts and the city of Miami Beach to keep our community safe from the Zika virus”. A recent study projected as many as 270 babies could be born with the debilitating birth defect microcephaly, between now and mid-2017.
Most adults infected with Zika have mild or no symptoms, the most common being fever, rash, red eyes and joint pain.
Zika is spread primarily through a mosquito’s bite and may also be sexually transmitted by a person who has been infected with Zika. Travel-based infection, where individuals visited countries hit heavy with Zika and returned, are up to 616 cases, according to state health officials.
Avoiding such places is becoming increasingly hard.
Scientists still don’t know the full extent of West Nile’s effects, but today the USA has another beast on its hands: the Zika virus.
Second, could the new pandemic Zika strain affect India, as it is now Singapore?
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Under the formula, people who have returned from countries or regions where Zika infections have been reported should refrain from donating blood for one month. In addition, you must be assessed by a doctor to require the Zika test.
