MIAMI (AP) – There’s no official warning to stay clear of Florida, but the crowds that usually wander among the bold street murals in Miami’s trendy Wynwood arts district may be thinner after reports that mosquitoes in the area have spread the Zika virus on the USA mainland for the first time.
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“While no mosquitoes have tested positive for the Zika virus, DOH is aggressively testing people in this area to ensure there are no other cases”, Scott said. Florida officials said they are still looking into the cases and have not come to a conclusion.
Florida is listed as having a moderate risk rating for the Zika virus, along with Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia and the Philippines. Gomez said the news is “scary but we can not stop living our lives”.
Zika is a mosquito-borne infection caused by Zika virus.
Health officials believe that the infections occurred in a very small area, north of Miami.
There is evidence that the virus can be passed through sexual transmission from men to women and men to men.
The Department of Foreign Affairs, as such, has updated its travel advice on Florida – suggesting that pregnant women don’t make the journey.
“If you have recently returned from an area where Zika virus transmissions are now reported and have a fever or flu-like illness, seek medical attention without delay to exclude malaria and mention your recent travel”.
The state officials and the CDC said that now the area where the Zika the cases have been detected is just limited to the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami.
The governor of Florida said four individuals in the southern part of the state were likely to have contracted the virus through bites from local mosquitoes than that were rather travel overseas. That means in addition to infected people entering or re-entering the US-say, after a tropical vacation-Zika’s entire mosquito-borne infection cycle has now officially been documented in the US. The Orlando area is teeming with an influx of tourists, attending the cluster of theme parks in the area such as Disney World, Universal Studios and SeaWorld.
Florida has already seen more than 300 Zika cases linked to travel overseas.
Florida had more than 106 million visitors past year, and tourism-related employment accounts for around 1.2 million jobs.
Zika-fighting efforts include pesticide spraying, setting traps and eliminating standing water around homes.
Scott has allocated over $25 million in state funds for Zika response, and the White House and the CDC have provided over $10 million. Congress left for its seven-week summer break directly before peak mosquito season without passing a spending bill to fund a federal response to the Zika virus.
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Another good strategy is to figure out if your community has A. aegypti mosquitoes, Weaver says.
