Health authorities in Utah are investigating a unique case.
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Zika was thought to exclusively by carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, before this study was completed by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz). But health officials say it has not been a significant source of Zika transmission. Two more Zika-related Guillain-Barre syndrome cases were reported, with that total at 14 now.
On Thursday, fogging trucks drove through a Miami-Dade County neighborhood where health officials are investigating a Zika diagnosis that doesn’t appear to have connection to travel outside the United States.
Zika virus spreads to people primarily through the bite of two species mosquito not normally found in MA.
Vasquez’s inspectors are going door-to-door, trapping mosquitoes for testing, hand-spraying and removing the standing water where they breed. Mosquitoes don’t transmit the virus to one another, so to find Zika-affected mosquitoes, workers must catch a mosquito that actually bit someone who was infected.
At the Zika workshop, Dr. Marc Fischer, chief of surveillance and epidemiology activity at the arboviral diseases branch of the CDC, said the agency has worked with state health departments to establish strategies to identify possible local transmission in the United States. However, Zika infection during pregnancy may cause microcephaly and other severe brain defects in the developing fetus.
DCHHS advises recent travelers with Zika virus symptoms as well as individuals diagnosed with the virus to protect themselves from further mosquito bites.
Culex mosquitoes can also range much further north than Aedes, according to Grayson Brown, a public health entomologist with University of Kentucky, who was not involved with the research. The same mosquito also has brought dengue and chikungunya to Florida and the Texas-Mexico border, but only in small clusters of cases.
Researchers from Wisconsin recently tried to infect Culex pipiens with Zika virus, however, and found that “none were capable of transmitting the virus”.
The CDC said Thursday that beginning August 1, it would award a total of $60 million to states, cities and territories to fund efforts to prevent Zika virus from spreading.
The money is part of $60 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
USA territories saw another big jump in local Zika infections last week, mainly from activity in Puerto Rico. “I remind all pregnant women in New York City, and those trying to get pregnant, that they should delay travel to places where there is active Zika transmission”.
‘So that cuts down the number of mosquitoes you’re going to get from that area, and we don’t know how numerous mosquitoes we’re getting are from there’.
Test results about the mosquitoes trapped since the amped-up effort was launched are expected back later this week, he said.
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But as Vox pointed out last week, Congress just entered its summer holiday break without voting on .1 billion in funding for more Zika prevention measures.
