People with the Zika virus disease can have symptoms including mild fever, skin rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise or headache. They credited aerial spraying of pesticides targeting the mosquitoes that transmit the virus.
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Officials are most concerned about pregnant women in Florida who have tested positive for Zika virus disease-those who contracted it either locally or overseas. Pregnant women afflicted by the virus is particulary at risk because it is known to cause microcephaly.
A Tarrant County resident who recently traveled to Miami has tested positive for the Zika virus in what is thought to be the second Texas case linked to a trip within the U.S.
Rick Scott declared the Miami neighborhood of Wynwood-where the Zika virus was first discovered in the continental U.S. -Zika-free after 45 days of no active transmission in the area.
Wynwood was the first place on the USA mainland where mosquitoes began transmitting Zika. Triage nurses at the Health Center have also received training to identify specific symptoms of the Zika virus and are prepared to route students to additional resources for treatment.
The Texas Department of State Health Services received, tested and confirmed the sample.
Associated Press medical reporter Mike Stobbe reported from New York City.
Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued a travel alert for St. Kitts and Nevis Friday, based on the latest updates on recent transmissions of the Zika virus there provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) earlier this week.
According to the Florida Health Department, the 15 locally transmitted cases are few compared to the population of Miami residents, which is 12.7 million.
The image formed in reports about Zika has been that of infected pregnant women giving birth to children with microcephaly-babies with deformed or small head. “Aerial spraying with Bti that controls the young mosquitos and naled is now the most effective tool in the Zika prevention toolbox”.
County Health Administrator Esmeralda Guajardo says, “We just can’t take any chances especially in an area where we’re working along the border, we have to be proactive and this is the means to do it”. CDC officials and Florida’s governor attributed the drop-off in infections there to aggressive aerial spraying with naled, an insecticide that targets adult mosquitoes, and street-level spraying with another pesticide that kills mosquito larva.
The results may not be easy to repeat in nearby Miami Beach, where tall buildings make aerial spraying more hard.
However hotel supply was up 5.7% in mid-September, making the task of pinning down the exact impact attributed to Zika more hard.
The funds will go “to work on finding a vaccine and also to come up with an innovating testing to help our pregnant women find out faster and accurately that hopefully that don’t have Zika”, said Scott.
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This Q & A will tell you what you need to know about Zika.
