Health officials in Florida said Friday there is a “high likelihood” that the state has the first cases of local Zika virus transmission by mosquitoes in the continental United States.
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MIAMI (AP) – Florida mosquitoes have likely spread the Zika virus on the U.S. mainland for the first time, and Republican U.S. Sen. While most people who get Zika don’t even know they are sick, infection during pregnancy can cause severe brain-related birth defects, including disastrously small heads.
The department “believes that active transmission of the Zika virus is occurring in one small area in Miami-Dade County, just north of downtown”, it added.
Fifty three people have been treated for the Zika virus, which can be predominantly transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
Health officials warn people to protect themselves from mosquito bites by using insect repellent, wearing trousers, using and/or replacing window screens and removing standing water. “With the amount of mosquitoes that are around this area, it’s really frightening”.
And while public health officials in England have updated the country’s travel advice in light of the outbreak in Florida, the leading national public health institute in the United States is not yet advising pregnant women to avoid non-essential travel to the southern state.
Health Protection Scotland provides similar advice on its website, although the section on the Zika virus is yet to include information about the situation in Florida.
But Florida health department spokeswoman Mara Gambineri said that the state still has not invited in CDC’s wider emergency response team of experts in epidemiology, risk communication, vector control and logistics. Officials say those four are apparently the first of over 1,650 U.S. Zika cases to have gotten the disease from a mosquito in the U.S. Instead, the biggest concern is people who travel to countries where Zika is prevalent, get bitten and return home.
The mosquitoes have a short travel range, and Florida officials are describing the infections as a “small case cluster” that do not indicate widespread transmission, the Times reported. They can resume collections once the blood centers put in place testing for each unit of blood collected.
In addition to mosquitoes, the Zika virus can be transmitted through sex.
The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday there were no plans to recommend limiting travel to South Florida.
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Despite this, there is still the risk of sexual transmission. The disease produces mild symptoms for most, such as headache, feverishness and red eyes, and 80% of healthy people who become infected suffer no symptoms. However, Congress left on a seven-week vacation without giving the Obama administration any of the $1.9 billion it sought to battle the virus.
