None of Florida’s 327 confirmed Zika infections, including 89 people in Miami-Dade, have involved bites from local mosquitoes, and one case in Polk County was sexually transmitted, according to the health department.
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Florida said it is investigating two possible cases of Zika not related to travel to an area where Zika is active, raising the possibility of the first incidence of local transmission of the mosquito-borne virus.
Zika prevention kits and repellent have been made available at the Department of Health in Broward County and mosquito control is trapping mosquitoes to study. Since that case doesn’t involve travel or sex, it has raised more questions about how the virus might spread.
On Aug. 1, OneBlood will offer special a Zika-screened blood supply to hospitals for use with pregnant women. Seminole County has had nine cases of travel-related Zika, Volusia County three cases and Lake County one reported case.
A senior epidemiologist from the CDC will arrive in Florida on Friday.
MIAMI (AP) – Florida mosquito control officials worry they won’t be able to keep up their efforts to contain the bugs that carry Zika without federal funding, even as concern mounts that the first infection from a mosquito bite on the USA mainland is near.
The State of MS will receive almost $2.5 million to help combat the Zika virus.
The funding will go to protect pregnant women, sureillance and investigation of the virus, shoring up lab capacity and improving mosquito control, as well as a registry to help monitor pregnant women with Zika and their infants.
“We can not wait to provide this essential support”, he said.
But as Vox pointed out last week, Congress just entered its summer holiday break without voting on .1 billion in funding for more Zika prevention measures. Experts predicted the consequences of that congressional inaction will include more babies born with microcephaly in the U.S. To date, all Zika virus cases in the USA are associated with travel to an affected area.
Mosquitoes tested as part of this investigation have so far tested negative for Zika, as of results that came back Thursday.
Zika has been linked to a rare birth defect as the virus has spread rapidly in Brazil and other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The option to be tested for the Zika virus at OneBlood takes effect August 1st.
Health officials said the case had no apparent connection to travel outside of the country, the Associated Press reported.
Health officials worldwide have advised people preparing to have children not to travel to areas where the risk of Zika is high.
So far, there is no confirmed case of local mosquito transmission of the virus; the Florida patients would be the first.
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Researchers, however, have said all along that eventually local Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the most common species transmitting Zika, probably would become carriers and the virus then could spread more rapidly through the United States.
