Reed, a member of the Appropriations Committee, is seeking $1.9 billion in emergency funds to combat Zika.
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“It is critical to identify infants affected by Zika so we can support them and their families”, said CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden. “This CDC funding provides real-time data about the Zika epidemic as it unfolds in the United States and territories and will help those most devastated by this virus”. The virus is typically transmitted through the bite of Aedes mosquitoes.
The U.S. territory of more than 100,000 people is reporting almost 80 Zika cases, 58 of them on St. Thomas, 20 on St. Croix and one on St. John.
Ten days ago, five cases of Zika infection were confirmed in Turks and Caicos Islands. Brazil has reported the vast majority of cases and the birth defect microcephaly.
Florida health officials said they have tested more than 200 people in Miami-Dade and Broward counties since early July. The reason: better insect control as well as window screens and air conditioning that should help curtail any outbreaks.
CDC encourages everyone, especially pregnant women and women planning to become pregnant, to protect themselves from mosquito bites to avoid possible Zika virus infection. Crews began spraying the one square mile north of Miami with active transmissions, trying to prevent the virus from spreading. Almost all have been the result of travel to a Zika-stricken country or sex with someone who was infected overseas, but now more than a dozen people have been infected in the U.S.
Residents can reduce the risk by eliminating standing water and using larvicide to kill young mosquitoes, officials said. “I don’t think they’re sitting around for the CDC to split hairs and fine-tune it to a specific area”.
The mosquitoes have a short travel range, and Florida officials are describing the infections as a “small case cluster” that do not indicate widespread transmission.
For months, government agencies have been keeping track of travel-related Zika infections.
Richard Besser walked the streets of the northern Miami district where at least 14 people have been infected in the first locally transmitted Zika outbreak in the continental U.S. Monday, and found some people simply enjoying their summers or going to the beach, unaware of the viral outbreak.
The Iowa Department of Public Health issued an updated alert Monday, warning those who are pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant to exercise caution when traveling to Zika-prone areas.
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He warned that people who suspect that they are infected, if they do engage in sexual activities, to use condoms from start to finish.
