As spring quickly turns to summer in the Sunshine State, Florida health officials on Friday confirmed one new case of Zika virus in Miami-Dade County, raising the statewide total to 88 people who have contracted the infectious disease since February.
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Remember: the symptoms of Zika are generally mild. All were considered at increased risk of contracting Zika virus because they’d recently traveled to or lived in more than 3 dozen countries and territories where mosquitoes are spreading the virus.
The department is not releasing the name, or gender, of the individual or where the person traveled, in order to protect privacy.
Patsy Kelso, the epidemiologist for the Department of Health, said scientists now know that the Zika virus can be spread from the bite of an infected mosquito, through unprotected sex with an infected man, or from a pregnant woman to her fetus, leading to brain damage in the baby.
That’s because the primary carrier of the virus, the Aedes aegypti mosquito, is already found in 30 states across the southern US, and a related species also know to transmit the virus is even more widespread.
Zika virus has caused microcephaly, a serious birth defect of the brain, in babies of mothers who had the virus while pregnant, and may cause other severe fetal brain defects.
There is no vaccine to prevent Zika.
Kelso advised Vermonters to take precautions if they plan to travel to areas where the virus is found.
Her doctor provided test samples to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which contacted the state after getting the positive test.
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The health department has information on the Zika virus here.
