Health officials have authorized more money in Zika funding for Florida.
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None of the cases in this latest report are attributed to mosquito bites inside the continental United States. There were no details about the identity of a patient in nearby Broward County. To date, all Zika virus cases in the US are associated with travel to an affected area.
“Properly using insect repellent and covering exposed skin are probably the most important recommendations for everyone to follow”, says Ryan. Mara Gambineri, a spokesperson for the Florida health department, said the agency is still investigating and had no new information to report.
Zika can be spread by mosquito bites or by sexual contact, and can cause birth defects if women are infected while pregnant.
Aedes mosquitoes can transmit dengue fever, yellow fever, eastern equine encephalitis and chikungunya, as well as Zika virus, and unlike most other species are active and can bite during the day. The state’s official count does not yet include the suspected mosquito-borne transmission in Miami-Dade.
Researchers, however, have said all along that eventually local Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the most common species transmitting Zika, probably would become carriers and the virus then could spread more rapidly through the United States.
But a local epidemiologist said more can be done to prevent an outbreak following a local transmission.
Health officials waited Thursday to see if mosquitoes collected near Miami test positive for the Zika virus. “Testing the mosquitoes is one thing”. One of the possible reasons why is that Culex mosquitoes in Recife may have a genetic variation that makes them different from those in Rio or elsewhere, the institute said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it has provided Florida $8 million in Zika-specific funding, and the White House has said the state can anticipate receiving another $5.6 million in Zika funding through a grant this week.
CDC officials did not immediately respond to questions about whether a CERT team has been deployed to Miami-Dade.
President Obama and Florida Gov. Rick Scott spoke by phone Wednesday about Zika.
Zika is a concern because if a pregnant woman is infected, she faces a higher risk of bearing a child with microcephaly, in which the skull and brain are malformed and smaller than normal. The Zika infection has been confirmed, but the mode of transmission has not.
Evidence of the virus in mosquitoes captured in the same areas also might help investigators declare Zika is spreading, but short of that, it might be hard to determine with certainty that mosquito transmission has occurred. Utah health officials are trying to determine how the son of a man who had been infected with Zika got the disease himself.
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“It’s exactly what they should be doing”, Marty said.
