There have been 36 confirmed cases of people getting infected in the state, with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expanding a travel advisory for pregnant women to include an area in Miami Beach.
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The Ministry of Health says that in conjunction with partners in health, tourism, public and private sectors, and civil society groups, it has implemented and continues to engage in a number of initiatives to decrease the impact of virus on the population.
Miami has become the epicenter for the USA mainland’s Zika problem, with over 3o documented cases of Zika contracted through mosquito bites occurring in the city or neighboring Miami Beach.
“We don’t know the exact link, one could be a tourist, one could be someone who may have worked on Miami Beach”, Levine told reporters.
Scott and state health officials previously said that local transmission of the disease was occurring only in Miami’s Wynwood community.
“It is critical to identify infants with birth defects related to Zika virus so we can support them and their families”, said CDC Director Tom Frieden in a statement.
Peres says she is particularly anxious about what schools are doing to protect children from the disease because she has a 9-year-old son herself.
The first confirmed case of Zika virus in Weber County is a pregnant woman in her first trimester who recently traveled to Mexico.
Zika’s harmful effects may not be limited to pregnant women and infants.
Unlike Wynwood, the Miami Beach neighborhood is not a good candidate for aerial spraying with naled, an insecticide used against the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
“We need the federal government to step up, ” Levine said at a news conference.
No Zika Symptoms – Wait at least 8 weeks after you may have been exposed to Zika before trying to get pregnant.
Concern has mounted since confirmation that Zika has expanded into a second region of the tourist hub of Miami-Dade County in Florida.
“Well we don’t have Zika mosquitos here”, Adams said.
Classes started for fall on Monday in the city, the only place in mainland America with a local outbreak of the mosquito-borne infection.
The most severe effect of the disease that we know of now is its impact on unborn babies, causing severe birth defects including microcephaly. About 4 in 5 people don’t have any symptoms, he says.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, an expert in infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said it would not be surprising to see new clusters of Zika cases pop up in different areas or counties of Florida.
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Health officials are still investigating an unusual case of Zika in Salt Lake County in which an elderly man’s son contracted the virus.
