See below for a breakdown of where the 14 Florida Zika cases have been confirmed.
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The disease was previously thought to have been passed only by the Aedes mosquito, and not from human-to-human.
Carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also carries dengue and yellow fever, the virus roared through French Polynesia in late 2013, and health officials noticed an increase in neurological and autoimmune complications, even paralysis, in victims.
Cedeno cautioned however that while the results were encouraging “its cost is high”.
Commenting on the action, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said: “On the 13th of February, we’re going to involve 220,000 members of the armed forces, as well as state health workers, community health workers and epidemiologists”. A key challenge in tackling the virus is that it shows symptoms in only one in five people who are infected, and for most people symptoms are limited to minor, flu-like aches and fever.
“In this case, the three deaths were preceded by Guillain-Barre syndrome”. Here’s what happens: When a mosquito bites a person who’s infected with the virus, that mosquito then carries the virus around with it. If it happens to swing by, say, your backyard barbecue, it can transfer the virus by biting another human host, and the cycle repeats itself.
The Florida Department of Health said all of Florida’s cases were acquired while traveling outside the USA, but Florida does have the mosquitoes which can transmit the virus from person-to-person.
US officials have recommended pregnant women postpone trips to more than two dozen countries with Zika outbreaks, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“This is not a generalized public health measure, for the love of God”, he added, stressing both the seriousness of the discovery and reality that it was too soon to say how it could impact the epidemic.
Now that the virus is travelling across continents, it is only a matter of time before Zika bites India. Gadelha underscored that the discovery needn’t alter Carnival plans for anyone but pregnant women.
But UN human rights chief UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said this warning meant little in countries that ban or heavily restrict access to reproductive health services like contraception and abortion.
Mr Hilton said the World Health Organization had not banned travel because of Zika, though pregnant women have been advised not to travel to Zika areas.
The World Health Organisation, which has declared the rise in Zika-linked birth defects an global emergency, warns that Zika could infect up to four million people in the Americas and spread worldwide.
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Colombia has around 20,500 confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne virus, including more than 2,100 pregnant women, making it one of the most affected countries in the region after Brazil.
