The patient is an adult woman who lives in Miami-Dade County, according to a health official familiar with the case who wasn’t authorized to reveal details beyond the statements of the agencies involved, and thus spoke on condition of anonymity.
Advertisement
The Zika virus is spread by mosquitoes and can cause a number of problems for pregnant women, including birth defects.
Those larvicides are good for about a month.
The Obama Administration has requested $1.9 billion that public health experts identified as necessary to combat Zika and protect the homeland, but the budget has not been approved by Congress. Miami health officials think that’s likely what happened in this case.
That is a reference to Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea and Yemen, which according to the CDC report, have the highest risk of importing the virus that is carried by a particular type of mosquito. And standing water, where mosquitoes breed, tends to be less of a problem in the United States than it is in some other countries, he said.
If water must be stored, tightly cover storage containers to prevent mosquitoes from getting inside and laying eggs.
So far, Florida, which has a subtropical climate where mosquitoes thrive and many travelers to Zika hot zones, has 326 confirmed cases as of Tuesday, more than any other state.
“Fortunately, the patient recovered quickly, and from what we have seen with more than 1,300 travel-associated cases of Zika in the continental United States and Hawaii, non-sexual spread from one person to another does not appear to be common”, Erin Staples, medical epidemiologist for the CDC, said in a statement. “More research is needed to better understand the potential for monkeys and apes to be reservoirs for Zika virus”. In other countries, the aedes aegypti mosquito is responsible for carrying the virus, and transmitting it during its meal.
Mosquito control inspectors in Miami have been going door-to-door in the area of investigation since health authorities alerted them late last week to the woman’s infection.
Zika is spread mostly by the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito and it can also be spread sexually.
The media campaign announced Wednesday by Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett will also remind New Yorkers to use condoms or another form of barrier protection when having sex with a person who has recently traveled to a Zika-affected area.
Curt Sommerhoff, the emergency management director in Miami-Dade County, says the department is working hard with the Florida Department of Health and Mosquito Control officials in case the investigation turns more significant.
For those who plan to go to a Zika-infected country, he recommends measures such as wearing long sleeves to protect from mosquito bites. Three days later, the man visited the same primary care physician who had diagnosed Zika virus infection in the female patient and blood and urine were collected.
Advertisement
After confirming the cases through the Dallas County Health and Human Services lab, the cases were referred to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Currently, there is no vaccine or treatment for the virus. They know that a man can infect his partners but they don’t know if a woman can infect her partners.
