“The public should be aware of the infection, and take care to avoid getting bitten by mosquitoes, and keep their homes clear of mosquito breeding environments”, Dr Than Win said.
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Ninety-five additional mosquito samples were subsequently tested for Zika and those mosquitoes were found to be Zika-free, the officials said. “This find is disappointing, but not surprising”, Putnam said in a prepared statement. “This detection enables us to continue to effectively target our resources”. A second outbreak location was found in Miami Beach in August. Infection during pregnancy is believed to result in babies with small heads – a condition called microcephaly – and other brain defects.
The Zika virus has mild effects on most people, but can be fatal for unborn children. Public health experts expect a wave of locally transmitted cases across the country, including here in Texas.
While cases of Zika continue to increase in other countries, Levin said, local residents should not be anxious about contracting the virus at home.
China received many times more travellers per year from Zika-affected parts of the Americas, but spent more on healthcare. Later, health authorities reported neurological disorders in newborns associated with infection.
The study was published online Thursday in the journal, Lancet.
Once Hermine passes, the remaining water “will provide all kinds of breeding sites for the mosquitoes”, that can spread Zika said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of Infectious Diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville. As of last week, the CDC had spent $194 million of the $222 million allocated to fight the virus. “Stay where there’s no Zika at the present time”, Schaffner said.
The CDC has sent about $35 million to Florida and much of that has been spent, Frieden said.
The World Health Organization has also linked Zika to Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults. President Barack Obama proposed $1.9 billion in emergency funding for Zika in February, but Congress has been unable to agree on a final bill. They used the spread of a related virus, dengue, as a model for Zika since the same mosquito species transmits both diseases.
The Florida agriculture department has tested more than 2,470 mosquito samples since May, and these were the first to test positive for Zika, officials said. There’s a high risk that Zika could start circulating in New Orleans or Houston, the newspaper reported.
Although Zika was first identified in 1947, the virus wasn’t considered a major health threat until a major outbreak in Brazil previous year revealed that Zika can lead to severe birth defects when pregnant women are infected. The governor allocated $26 million to address Zika prevention and to test pregnant women anxious they might be infected with the virus.
Singapore health officials on Thursday sought to reassure the worldwide community that the disease is under control after the United States and Britain joined Australia and Taiwan in advising pregnant women to avoid non-essential travel to the city-state.
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“Even if they don’t have symptoms they really need to wait eight weeks before getting pregnant”, Wells said.
