And because a person in Utah may have caught the virus after caring for someone with Zika, officials will likely also check whether the Florida Zika patient had cared for someone with Zika.
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For someone to acquire Zika in Florida, a person infected with Zika would have to spread the virus to a mosquito, which then would spread it to another human.
In Florida, health officials are investigating what could be the first Zika infection from a mosquito bite in the continental United States, involving a resident of the Miami area.
“During pregnancy, the Zika virus may be passed from the mother to her fetus”, said Dr. Rahul Gupta, state health officer and commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health in a recent press release.
Evidence of the virus in mosquitoes captured in the same areas also might help investigators declare Zika is spreading, but short of that, it might be hard to determine with certainty that mosquito transmission has occurred.
“The president recognized Florida’s strong record of responding aggressively to local outbreaks of mosquito-pborne viruses like Zika, and offered federal support and technical assistance for Florida’s ongoing case investigation and mosquito control efforts”, the White House statement said.
The case in the Miami area could be the first case transmitted locall through a Zika-infected mosquito.. Texas was the only other state to report a local chikungunya case, in an individual who got sick in November 2015 and whose infection was confirmed in January. But all of the patients diagnosed have been infected while traveling overseas, in areas where Zika is more prevalent.
And the Zika narrative continues to unfold, with just this past week marking a couple Zika firsts: the first case of Zika virus infection not transmitted via sexual contact or mosquito bites and the first case of confirmed female-to-male sexual transmission.
Knowing Zika could be in some of our mosquitoes raises the concern, but Lee County Mosquito Control said Wednesday they’ve been working for months to keep the viruses out. Gulf Coast states like Florida are the most susceptible to such outbreaks because they are hot, low-lying, and home to the Aedes mosquito, the only mosquito known to spread the disease. “Possibly, but for it to become locally transmitted you have to have huge mosquito populations of the particular species that can vector it, but we’re not seeing that right now”, said Presley. Spokeswoman Gayle Love said they’ve been going door-to-door since health authorities alerted them late last week, spraying to kill mosquitoes and emptying any containers holding water.
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Zika often goes undetected as symptoms are often rare, but the most common symptoms tend to be a fever, rash, joint pain, or conjunctivitis (red eye). Jamaica and Honduras now have some of the highest number of Zika searches. Researchers said that because it will be winter in host city Rio de Janeiro during the games, mosquito-borne transmission of Zika virus is predicted to be low. Zika also can spread through unprotected sex with someone who is infected. Prevention kits will be reserved for pregnant women, who face the greatest risk from Zika because prenatal infection can cause birth defects and other neurological disorders, according to medical research.
