Puerto Rican Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla thanked the U.S government for declaring a public health emergency, and recently approved the use of Bti-an organic larvicide-meant to fight the spread of the Zika virus.
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The announcement said Puerto Rico has had 10,690 laboratory-confirmed cases of Zika, including 1,035 cases involving pregnant women.
In announcing the declaration, the federal agency pointed to the dangers that the mosquito-borne virus poses to pregnant women.
Following a travel alert issued for the Cayman Islands by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, after the territory confirmed two cases of local zika transmission, the Department of Tourism (DoT) is braced for the potential impact on the local tourism industry.
“This administration is committed to meeting the Zika outbreak in Puerto Rico with the necessary urgency”, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said in a statement. Florida has reported homegrown Zika transmission by mosquitoes. Zika can cause severe birth defects.
The virus is less impactful if one is not a pregnant woman, however; just one in five people display even show symptoms after contracting the virus. 1,914 new cases of the Zika virus were reported in Puerto Rico last week. It also can also be spread by sex, prompting public health officials to advise that people who have been infected refrain from unprotected sex for several months. The emergency declaration enables the government of Puerto Rico to apply for funding to hire and train unemployed workers to assist in vector control and outreach and education efforts through a Department of Labor grant program.
There are steps that Florida officials can take to encourage visitors and keep them safe, study author Ignatius Cahyanto stressed in a university news release.
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According to a new report from the Los Angeles Times, Brazil has successfully defeated the Zika virus before.
