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Florida Gov. Rick Scott Declares Zika Emergency
All of them have a history of recent travel to an area with a Zika outbreak and have symptoms consistent with the disease, said Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, deputy chief for Acute Communicable Disease Control at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. “We know that we must be prepared for the worst even as we hope for the best”, Scott added Wednesday.
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Lee, Hillsborough, and Santa Rosa counties are also affected by the warning.
At an emergency meeting of health officials in Latin America, the director of the Pan American Health Organization said the sexual transmission revelation raises new concerns. However, the virus has also been associated with the rise of a risky birth defect in Brazil called microcephaly, characterized by an abnormally small head and brain.
However, because of its suspected link to birth defects, the World Health Organization has declared the Zika virus a public health emergency of worldwide concern.
Experts say it certainly may be possible to pass the virus from person to person through sexual contact but that sexual transmission is probably quite rare and that mosquitoes pose the greatest risk.
But in Texas, officials discovered the first US case of sexually transmitted Zika virus.
Scott directed the state’s surgeon general to declare the public health emergency, and for state officials to pay special attention to mosquito spraying in residential areas in those counties.
USA health insurers are closely monitoring the Zika virus and educating members, but it’s too soon to project what the virus may cost payers.
Indianapolis-based health insurer Anthem Inc. posted a message on Twitter cautioning travelers headed to the Caribbean to heed the CDC’s warnings about Zika virus, and Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group Inc. has published updates related to the virus on its website. However, it has been observed in Brazil that the infection is linked with the babies born with microcephaly, but more researches are needed to confirm this connection.
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So far, most of their warnings are directed at pregnant women or those who plan to become pregnant, especially those in the Southern Hemisphere. One of the cases involved an American passing Zika to his wife after traveling to research malaria in Senegal.