“Our whole mosquito control industry and public health industry is spinning up resources to be prepared for the eventuality that it might reach our shores…and what we want to do is prevent it from establishing itself…and in order to do that we need to garner the resources, have them on hand, be able to identify the virus if it gets here and institute control measures”.
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The virus spreads primarily through mosquito bites from two species of mosquitoes that can actively transmit the virus.
In Michigan, we have more to worry about with the mosquito-borne diseases West Nile virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis, and the tick-borne Lyme disease.
These are among the advance steps that the heads of mosquito control agencies in USA cities and counties say they are taking to combat the Zika virus ahead of the typical springtime breeding season.
China confirmed its first imported case of Zika late Tuesday, Xinhua reported, as fears mount over the fast-spreading virus that has been linked to severe birth defects mostly in Latin America.
Guillain-Barre syndrome is an immunological reaction that can occur after viral or bacterial infections. The association of these illnesses with Zika virus is temporal and causality has yet to be proven, however evidence is accumulating.
Though the ones found in the traps were not carrying the virus, public health officials are warning residents to take extra precaution. Health officials say the virus is not transmitted through casual contact.
Virginia Beach, VA-based Mosquito Joe provides mosquito control treatment to residential and commercial customers nationwide.
Astudy by researcher Heikal Omar El-Bahnasawy in 2011 discussed the emergence of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito in Aswan, which can also carry and transmit the Dengue hemorrhagic fever, yellow fever and Chikungunya fever, diseases that can be found throughout Africa.
Still, compared to Florida, the numbers of disease-transmitting mosquitoes are low. It has been found in semen and a recent case of Zika in Texas was attributed to sexual transmission via a person who had travelled to an area of endemic infection. They also tend to be more aggressive than native mosquitoes and can breed in containers of water as small as a bottle cap.
Up to date travel advice for countries reporting Zika transmission is available from the National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC). He said workers would hunt down breeding sites, eliminate standing water and use up-close spraying in a half-mile radius – twice the flight range of the carrier mosquitoes.
Aside from Microcephaly in newborns of infected mothers, Zika’s primary symptoms are fever, a skin rash, muscle pain, headache and conjunctivitis.
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“The concern is particularly acute in the South and Southeast, where high temperatures, high humidity and a propensity for standing water to accumulate create ideal conditions for Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that spreads Zika, to proliferate”.
