Dr. Murthy says the two, possible non-travel related cases, show why Floridians need to be prepared.
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The department announced earlier this week that it was investigating cases in Miami-Dade and Broward counties that could involve infections not linked to travel.
That includes surveying households and neighbors within a 150-yard radius around the residence of the person who has Zika.
A press release from Lewis & Clark Public Health explains that the Zika virus spreads to people mostly through the bite of certain kinds of mosquitoes (of the genus Aedes).
There have already been more than 1,4000 Zika cases in the USA, the CDC reports, but until now all of them were contracted during travel overseas or by sexual relations with someone who had traveled to areas where Zika is widespread.
Only five cases of Guillain-Barre associated with the Zika virus had been reported in the nation as of July 20 and another 15 in the U.S. Territories.
For this reason, the CDC recommends that pregnant women avoid traveling to any area where Zika virus is spreading.
The Health Department’s travel advisory urges pregnant women and those trying to conceive not travel to places where there is active transmission of the Zika virus. Zika is usually spread by mosquitoes, but almost all the Zika cases in the US have been contracted in other countries or through sex with someone who got it overseas.
This is the first time this mosquito species has been identified in this county.
Florida health officials are capturing and testing mosquitoes in the neighborhoods where the two unidentified patients live.
“We’re constantly in the area”. “We try to get access to every backyard we can”, Vasquez said.
A second case of Zika virus in South Florida is being called into question because the person who contracted it hasn’t traveled overseas, ramping up concerns mosquitoes here may be infected. Zika is not known to be circulating in the mosquito population in Kentucky.
Those planning worldwide travel are particularly encouraged to consult the CDC’s travelers’ health website, wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/, for country-specific health information for travelers.
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Over the past week, Florida’s mosquito control efforts have been focused on one particular neighborhood. “Once they become established, it is extremely hard to get rid of those species”. “These CDC funds will strengthen state and territorial capacity to respond to Zika virus, an increasingly concerning public health threat”.
