He says the fifth was diagnosed in a Pinellas County resident who hasn’t travelled internationally.
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Gov. Rick Scott said at a Zika roundtable in the Tampa area’s Pinellas County that four new cases were connected to mosquitoes in Miami’s Wynwood arts district.
Mr Scott said authorities have cleared half of the area in Wynwood believed to be the source of ongoing active transmission and were working to begin aggressive spraying and mosquito abatement efforts in Pinellas County.
This approach uses molecular biology as birth control for mosquitoes. For more information, visit the agency’s website.
However, defects could occur even when head size was normal – for example, severe ventriculomegaly was seen in three fetuses with normal head size, the study team reported. With that in mind, the state is offering free Zika tests for pregnant women and Zika prevention kits, as well.
The state department of health has begun door-to-door outreach in Pinellas County, testing individuals to find other cases, Scott said in a statement. The no-cost tests are available on a walk-in basis between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
The researchers report that the Zika virus appears to be most severe when it is transmitted by the mother to her fetus during the first trimester of pregnancy. In addition to mosquitoes, the virus can be sexually transmitted, the CDC has said.
Longini, a senior researcher at UF’s Emerging Pathogen Institute, partnered with Dr. Alessandro Vespignani at Northeastern University, Dr. Elizabeth Halloran at the University of Washington, and scientists from several other institutions to produce a website showing how Zika virus has spread through Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America, and projecting how it might spread in the future.
Protect yourself from mosquito bites by wearing insect repellent or long sleeves when going outside.
“We are also interested in investigating how congenital Zika virus infection can interfere with not only prenatal, but also postnatal gray and white brain maturation”, she added. More advice can also be found in this related story: Zika Virus in Florida: March of Dimes Offers Advice, Warnings for Pregnant Women.
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