Zika is transmitted by mosquito bites, and the strain of mosquitoes that carry the virus does not live in the Northwest.
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According to Puerto Rico Department of Health, as of Aug 12 there have been 10,690 laboratory-confirmed cases of Zika in Puerto Rico.
Doctors have also found other problems in pregnancies and among fetuses and infants infected with Zika virus before birth.
Zika has finally made it into the continental US, but it’s been taking over Puerto Rico since late spring. It is meant to promote an immune response that would protect against the mosquito-borne virus that can cause devastating birth defects, according to a statement from the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Burwell said in a statement that the declaration would allow the United States to “provide additional support to the Puerto Rican government”, but did not give further details.
Earlier this month, the first cases of locally acquired Zika infection in Florida were confirmed in the Miami-area Wynwood neighborhood. Babies with microcephaly are born with too-small heads and underdeveloped brains. Moreover, the British health officials advised pregnant women and women planning pregnancies to avoid traveling to Florida. All had already planned to visit the state within the next six months. They said all MI cases thus far have been associated with travel and aren’t from local mosquitoes.
Experts stress that wearing long-sleeved clothes and trousers, using bug repellent and dumping standing water where mosquitoes can reproduce are the best ways to lower the chance of infection from any mosquito-bourne disease.
According to The New York Times, there could be “thousands” of Zika infected pregnant women by the time the year it out, though the first cases of microcephaly won’t (hopefully never) appear until September or October.
There are steps that Florida officials can take to encourage visitors and keep them safe, study author Ignatius Cahyanto stressed in a university news release.
The state continues to aggressively fight the spread of the virus through mosquito control efforts.
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Garcia recently authorized the use of Bti, an organic larvicide, to fight the spread of Zika after rejecting aerial spraying with the insecticide naled as proposed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
