Thursday, the CDC gave Utah almost a million dollars to help health departments and abatement programs fight Zika.
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In the event the case is confirmed, OneBlood would cease collections in the impacted zip code and bring in blood from unaffected areas to supply that region, organization officials said.
While this may be good news for health departments across the state, one Southwest Florida agency may not be seeing any of that money.
“We’re constantly in the area”, Miami-Dade County Solid Waste Management spokeswoman Gayle Love told the AP. Zika is usually spread by mosquitoes, but almost all the Zika cases in the USA have been contracted in other countries or through sex with someone who got it overseas.
Larry Smart, a Miami-Dade County mosquito control inspector, looks at a mosquito larva in a sample of standing water in Miami in May. It will be used for things like curbing breeding grounds for mosquitos.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has opened investigations into two Zika virus cases that, if verified, substantially could raise the stakes in the fight against that disease.
Over 1,400 cases of Zika virus have been reported in US states and the District of Columbia, according to the CDC.
Zika has been identified as a cause of severe brain-related birth defects. Vasquez says no mosquitoes collected in the county so far have tested positive for Zika.
More than 1,300 Zika infections have been reported in the US, none involving bites from local mosquitoes; 14 of these were sexually transmitted, and one lab worker was stuck with a contaminated needle.
Understanding modes of transmission is becoming more urgent to Florida residents as the first suspected cases of local transmission have emerged – on Tuesday health officials announced they were investigating a possible case in Miami-Dade County, and on Thursday, a possible case in Broward County. “West Nile, once it got here, it went across the continent in three years”, he said.
Florida’s Department of Health has not ruled out sexual transmission or travel as the source of a Miami-area woman’s Zika infection.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Zika virus typically causes a mild rash, fever and joint pain.
Florida, the state with the highest number of cases, was a likely target for local outbreaks due to its climate, high mosquito populations and large number of worldwide travelers.
OneBlood will soon start screening blood for Zika.
“This happens to be a mom that’s going to have a child, and we’re as concerned as she is”, Mickelson said. Neither case has been confirmed. “It’s the truck, it’s the gas, it’s the chemicals – it’s the whole shooting match”.
So far, there have only been reports of the virus spreading by sexual transmission, said Callie Carmichael, a CDC spokeswoman.
“You have to test people”, Marty said.
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Obama said in addition to $2 million that the CDC has provided to Florida for Zika preparedness, the agency planned on adding $5.6 million through a grant to be awarded this week.
