Dr. Lyle Petersen of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explained the cycle of infection to the Associated Press, saying it “starts with a person infected with Zika-presumably a traveler who recently returned home with the virus still lurking in his or her bloodstream”, at which point a mosquito in the USA bites that person, gets Zika from their blood, and then “spreads the virus by biting someone else”. However, Zika infection during pregnancy can cause a serious birth defect of the brain called microcephaly and other severe fetal birth defects.
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Health officials in San Francisco Friday confirmed a new case of Zika virus, that brings the total to eight.
Florida has become the first state in our nation to have local transmission of the Zika virus.
“We don’t now see a situation where we would advise pregnant women not to travel there”, Frieden said.
The state officials and the CDC said that now the area where the Zika the cases have been detected is just limited to the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami.
Gov. Rick Scott said during a news conference in Orlanda that no mosquitoes in the state have tested positive for Zika.
Health officials have authorized more money in Zika funding for Florida.
“We know the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is known to carry Zika virus, is present in Florida”, said Paul Cosford, director of health protection at Public Health England.
All three of the patients had traveled outside of the United States to areas where the virus has been transmitted.
Zika, which often comes with no symptoms, is very risky for pregnant women.
Responding to the possibility of local transmission of the Zika virus in South Florida, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that it was asking all blood centers in Miami-Dade and Broward counties to stop collecting blood immediately. He also says it’s a good idea to take precautions at home like wearing bug spray, long sleeves and trousers and emptying out any standing water around your home where mosquitoes breed.
Florida is listed as having a moderate risk rating for the Zika virus, along with Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Even though the mosquito-transmitted cases were limited to South Florida, leaders across Florida were nervous about the potential fallout to tourism, the state’s No. 1 industry.
It can take a couple of weeks before an infected person shows symptoms, and by then the mosquitoes that transmitted the virus are dead, she said. That’s an alarming development because, until now, the more than 1,600 reported cases of Zika in the United States had been linked to overseas travel (people either visiting Zika-infested countries or having sex with someone who contracted Zika abroad).
More than 106 million people visited Florida last year, which was the fifth consecutive record year for visitations, according to Visit Florida, an organization that promotes tourism in the Sunshine State.
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“This is not just a Florida issue”.
