This week health officials in Florida identified what appears to be the first locally transmitted Zika virus infection, and NBC News reports below that a second possible South Florida case of locally spread Zika has been diagnosed.
Advertisement
“The way you prevent a locally transmitted case from becoming sustained and disseminated is good mosquito control”, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, last week.
However, Fiocruz chairman Paulo Gadelha said he is still cautious about the findings since another study of Zika virus presence in Culex mosquitoes made in Rio de Janeiro has not indicated contamination so far.
Vasquez’s inspectors are going door-to-door, trapping mosquitoes for testing, hand-spraying and removing the standing water where they breed.
They’ll be coordinating with community health centers, hospitals, and emergency rooms to test residents that have not traveled to known Zika infected areas but are exhibiting symptoms of the virus, which has been linked to severe birth defects.
The case is the third reported in Montana since the virus turned up in the Western Hemisphere in May 2015, according to Lewis and Clark Public Health.
Regarding the first Zika virus case reported this week, health authorities said the investigation is still ongoing.
In this Monday, May 23, 2016 photo, Aedes aegypti mosquitos sit inside a glass tube at the Fiocruz institute in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
For more information, call the Lewis & Clark Public Health agency, or visit the CDC website.
The Atlanta-based CDC is giving out millions of dollars to stop the spread of the Zika virus.
Of the 2,000 pregnant women the Health Department has tested for Zika after traveling overseas, 41 were confirmed as having Zika, city officials announced Wednesday. Dr. Murthy says the two, possible non-travel related cases, show why Floridians need to be prepared.
The birth defect causes the baby to have a smaller than normal head and can be associated with other brain problems as well, health officials said. However, “anyone planning to travel to countries where the Zika virus is circulating among mosquitoes should take steps to protect themselves”.
“Our focus continues to be on pregnant women because of the devastating effects that this virus can have on a pregnant woman’s baby”.
Advertisement
The person, a woman who was not pregnant, recently traveled to another country with an active Zika outbreak.
