Florida is believed to have the first cases of Zika virus transmitted by mosquitoes on the USA mainland, health officials said Friday.
Advertisement
The FDA previously advised US blood banks to refuse donations from people who recently traveled to areas outside the country that have Zika outbreaks.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, four people in Florida likely contracted Zika from mosquitoes.
Donors should also expect the two affected Florida counties, Miami-Dade and Broward, to be added to the list of Zika-affected areas.
According to Hortez, while these four recent cases have been reported, there are probably more that have not been diagnosed, and people should not be surprised if mosquitoes are soon found to be spreading Zika in Louisiana and Texas, as well.
“All the evidence we have seen indicates that this is mosquito-borne transmission that occurred several weeks ago in several blocks in Miami”, CDC Director Tom Frieden said.
Counties of pregnant women not disclosed.
“As with most emerging health threats, we learn more about Zika each day, but we recognize that the unknown can be scary, especially for pregnant women”, she said.
These would not, however, be the first cases of person-to-person Zika transmission within the US. Brazil has had 1,687 confirmed cases of brain-related birth defects in newborns associated with Zika since the first case was identified in April 2015.
You can get the Zika virus if an infected female mosquito bites you, or through sexual contact.
As for whether or not pregnant women should now avoid travel to south Florida, Harris said it hasn’t gotten that severe. And health officials are aggressively testing people in that area.
“We are then able to say okay in this area, the mosquito population does have the virus, so it’s likely to transmit the disease here”, said Dr. Roberto Pereira. OneBlood began screening all blood donations for Zika virus on Friday.
Also, the department works with mosquito control agencies throughout the state who conduct mosquito testing in areas of known human cases to determine if mosquitos in those areas are carrying the virus.
Advertisement
There are now 168 travel-related cases of Zika virus in Canada, and one sexually transmitted case. That includes 24 people with Zika in Harris County and another three cases in Fort Bend County. These infections are thought to have occurred because the patients’ partners had traveled to countries where Zika is circulating, the CDC said.
