Florida health officials on Wednesday confirmed 11 new Zika infections in six counties, including Lake County, which reported its first case this year. “Due to health privacy laws, health officials will not release further details about the individual or the individual’s travel history”, the Salt Lake County Health Department said on its website.
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The unidentified person had an underlying health condition and had travelled to a region “where mosquitoes are known to spread Zika virus”, according to health officials. If a pregnant woman becomes infected with Zika, it can cause severe borth defects in the baby.
Local health officials also say there is now no threat of the virus being spread by mosquitoes in Utah.
The Northern Kentucky Health Department set up eight traps, two each in Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties.
As of Monday, Pennsylvania had 36 confirmed cases of Zika, according to the state Department of Health.
State Public Health Veterinarian Catherine Brown told 22News that while Zika is a source of concern, there are other, more prevalent diseases to worry about in western MA. Zika normally causes very mild symptoms – at the worst a rash and a fever. For women in the US, where abortion is a legal medical procedure, those who contract Zika while pregnant will have to make the highly personal choice of whether or not to terminate their pregnancy.
No cases of locally transmitted mosquito-borne Zika have been reported in the continental United States, according to the CDC. “It may not be possible to determine if or how Zika contributed to the death”, said the spokesman, Nicholas Rupp. Men who have traveled to areas where Zika is actively spreading and did not develop symptoms of Zika virus infection should use a condom or abstain from sex for at least eight weeks after returning from travel.
The Aedes aegypti, or the yellow fever mosquito, has been the primary carrier of Zika in other parts of the Western Hemisphere, but it hasn’t been found in Pennsylvania since 2002, when a small population was brought to Bucks by accident.
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An elderly Utah woman died after contracting the sometimes fatal virus from a mosquito while traveling to areas of the world where the bugs carrying the virus are known to thrive.
