But Murthy, who visited Puerto Rico Thursday where more than 10,000 people are infected, said the government has redirected $8 million to support Florida’s response as well as $27 million for emergency preparation.
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They say the residents had returned from trips overseas to Zika-infested areas.
This comes days after Harris County Judge Ed Emmett announced at a press conference the first Zika-related death in the USA and a week following the announcement by Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick that the state would be getting $6 million in federal aid to combat the Zika virus. Some who carry Zika do not show symptoms, and in others, illness may last from several days to over a week.
The Obama administration plans to reallocate $81 million from the Department of Health and Human Services to fight the Zika virus, according to a letter sent Thursday by HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell. “But [with] Zika, we already have a potential vaccine” and other Zika-related drugs are in development.
Three new non-travel cases of the Zika virus have been found in Florida, bringing the number of cases confirmed there so far to 28, health officials said.
Zika virus is primarily transmitted through a mosquito bite, and there is no indication that it can spread from person to person through casual contact.
“However, we still have a long way to go when it comes to clinical applications”, Zhao said.
President Barack Obama had asked Congress back in February for $1.9 billion to help fight Zika but lawmakers haven’t been able to agree on a spending plan. The Campbell County woman had recently traveled to a country with known, local Zika transmission and is not pregnant.
Dr. Kjersti Aagaard, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Texas Children’s Hospital Pavilion for Women and the Baylor College of Medicine, said microcephaly triggered by Zika is an urgent concern because of its association with brain malformation. Experts will discuss the individual and public-health implications of Zika, along with prevention and containment strategies.
Knox County reported its first confirmed case of Zika virus July 23.
While the district is relaxing its dress code a bit to allow students to cover up more, putting on mosquito repellent at the Miami-Dade county schools is not allowed. Although both chambers passed Zika funding bills in the spring – $1.1 trillion in the Senate and $622 million in the House – efforts to find a compromise stalled when House Republicans included provisions that targeted Planned Parenthood and the Affordable Care Act.
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In most of the population, the symptoms of the virus are relatively mild, such as a fever, rash and joint pain, but in pregnant women, the virus can cause devastating birth defects.
