Health Secretary Ana Rius said Friday there are 10,690 cases altogether, including 1,035 involving pregnant women.
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The action gives the government access to additional funding to fight Zika as congressional efforts to allocate money remain stalled.
The health emergency declaration allows Puerto Rico to apply for more federal resources to help fight the outbreak on the island.
“A safe and effective vaccine to prevent Zika virus infection and the devastating birth defects it causes is a public health imperative”, NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. said in a statement.
“Although three additional individuals in Wynwood have been identified with the Zika virus today, we are confident that our mosquito education, prevention and control efforts are working and hopeful that the impacted area will continue to be reduced as the DOH investigation continues”, Gov. Rick Scott said in the release.
HHS made the declaration at the request of Alejandro García Padilla, governor of the USA commonwealth.
It can also reassign public health or agency workers to beef up the response teams.
On a more personal basis, “the declaration signals the urgency for pregnant women and children born to pregnant women with Zika – this action could encourage residents to take protective measures”, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an expert on infectious disease and senior associate at the UPMC Center for Health Security.
The virus has been circulating in South America, Central America and the Caribbean for the past year. Burwell traveled to the USA territory in late April to evaluate its response to the outbreak. It believes the actual number of infections is likely higher because most people with Zika have no symptoms and might not seek testing. Zika can also be transmitted through sex.
Earlier this summer, the Centers for Disease Control urged Puerto Rico to begin spraying for mosquitos from the air.
The United States is experiencing its first-ever outbreak of Zika, in a one-square-mile Miami neighborhood called Wynwood.
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The move to support Puerto Rico comes as the number of cases contracted in the continental USA has grown to more than two dozen in Florida, all thought to have contracted the virus from mosquitoes in the same north Miami neighborhood.
