New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said the first confirmed case in the city is not surprising given the travel trends of New York City.
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On Tuesday, Florida said it was investigating a possible Zika case in a Miami-Dade County woman.
Another Zika case reported in Utah became the first death related to the virus in the continental United States.
So far, 1,404 people in 46 USA states have contracted Zika, including 15 cases that were sexually acquired.
Further on, Florida’s Department of Health is working alongside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The virus, which has been linked to serious birth defects and fetal death and to a serious neurological disorder Gullain Barre syndrome, has been widespread this year in the Caribbean, Latin America and Brazil.
There is no vaccine against Zika virus.
The infant has been diagnosed with microcephaly, a condition in which the child’s skull is too small for its brain, crushing the brain and causing severe neurological damage.
More than 1,300 Zika infections have been reported in the USA, none involving bites from local mosquitoes; 14 of these were sexually transmitted and one lab worker was stuck with a contaminated needle.
The money is Arkansas’ part of the $60 million the center is giving to states, cities and territories to battle the virus through increased research efforts, laboratory improvement and improving mosquito control, according to a news release sent Thursday.
More than 1,400 cases of Zika virus have been reported in the USA, according to the CDC.
Up to now, transmission of the virus was only known through the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the same insect that spreads dengue and chikungunya. Its most common symptoms are fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes. None of those cases is a result of local mosquito transmission.
Around 1,300 cases of Zika have been recorded in the continent of USA and in Hawaii, but none of these have reported to be caused by a mosquito bite. This time, the possible Zika case occurred in the state’s Broward County.
Florida non-profit blood bank OneBlood will start testing donated blood for the Zika virus, its representatives announced Thursday. “We want them to continue to avoid travel to areas where Zika virus is circulating and take steps to prevent sexual transmission as well”, Skinner asserted.
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But the state hasn’t been able to fill most of the $15 million in emergency Zika funding requests, and Congress left on a seven-week vacation without giving the Obama administration any of the $1.9 billion it sought to battle Zika.
