Health officials say 41 of the women have been confirmed to have Zika.
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Health officials said lab tests confirmed the patient’s infection earlier this week.
“We continue to investigate and have not ruled out travel or sexual transmission at this time”, a department spokesperson told NBC News.
The infected person was diagnosed in Broward County, where officials are investigating whether the individual could have contracted the disease by traveling overseas, through sexual contact or via infected mosquitoes.
Larry Smart, a Miami-Dade County mosquito control inspector, looks at a mosquito larva in a sample of standing water in Miami in May. The Panhandle’s very first case was announced Thursday by The Texas Department of State Health Services.
Zika has been on the brain of many a traveler this year, whether they’re headed to the Caribbean or the Rio Olympics.
According to the CDC, there is one known case in Montana. “It doesn’t mean they transmit the virus”, Hotez said.
In the latest update from two CDC Zika pregnancy registries, the agency said 54 more infections linked to travel have been reported from USA states, lifting the number to 400. The CDC is working with Florida health officials to investigate what could be the first Zika infection from a mosquito bite in the continental United States.
The plan suggests there should be two or more cases within a 1-mile area in people who do not live together, who did not have sex with Zika-infected people and who did not recently travel to countries with Zika outbreaks.
Health officials predicted the virus would reach US mosquitoes this summer and have mobilized to keep Zika from spreading beyond isolated clusters of cases.
It’s also important to remember that Zika can be spread through sexual transmission regardless of the elevation or environment, according to the CDC: “Travelers are still at risk of sexual transmission from a male partner who has been in areas with local transmission”. “These results will help the department determine the number of people affected”, the department of health said.
While state and local officials have been testing mosquitoes for Zika virus for months, a local epidemiologist believes more can be done to ensure that an outbreak does not occur.
So far, there have only been reports of the virus spreading by sexual transmission, said Callie Carmichael, a CDC spokeswoman.
Zika was thought to exclusively by carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, before this study was completed by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz).
The cost of fighting Zika isn’t cheap, but President Obama said more money is coming for Florida’s efforts to combat the virus.
She says Zika is a big concern for her. The findings, they said, “confirm the species as a potential vector of the virus”. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes spread yellow fever, dengue, chikungunya and Zika viruses, which are all closely related and biologically adapted to these mosquitoes.
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Culex quinquefasciatus is a medium-sized brown insect.
