Department of Public Health Director Dr. Karen Smith emphasized that infants born with birth defects as a result of maternal Zika infection don’t pose a risk to public health.
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The virus, which has spread rapidly throughout subtropical countries in the western Hemisphere, can cause severe birth defects if pregnant women are infected.
“We join the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in urging pregnant women to avoid travel to areas with known Zika transmission”. Another six fetuses were either miscarried, aborted or stillborn.
Since the Health Department began testing for locally transmitted cases, more than 340 people in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties “who live or work near the individuals” infected with Zika have been tested for the virus.
All of the cases are people who contracted the virus after traveling to Zika-affected areas, which include the Caribbean, South America and a neighborhood in Miami, Florida.
All of the infections happened outside of the continental USA, and six family members of service personnel also contracted the virus, the Military Times reported.
“Although Carteret County is not within the geographic distribution area for the Zika virus (through the Aedes aegypti mosquito), we have an abundance of the secondary vector (Aedes albopictus)”.
Although Zika has been in the headlines lately, last week the first West Nile case was confirmed here in Fresno County.
This additional funding comes after CDC issued a travel warning this week to areas in Miami, Florida, following the first confirmed cases of Zika transmission through mosquito bites within the continental United States. So, those in the Miami area, do not forget to douse yourself in bug spray when you head outdoors. “For this reason, I have directed DOH to make Zika testing available to all pregnant women who would like to be tested at county health departments statewide at no cost”.
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Nineteen other pregnant women in California who contracted Zika while traveling overseas were being monitored by doctors.
