The Department of Foreign Affairs have warned pregnant women about travelling from Ireland to Florida after a Zika virus outbreak was confirmed in Miami.. The CDC is not issuing such advice, however. 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.
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MIAMI (AP) – As word spread that Miami’s hippest neighborhood was now considered ground zero for the first mosquito-transmitted infections of the Zika virus in the USA mainland, many residents vowed to take precautions, local officials urged tourists not to change travel plans and mosquito-control workers geared up for war against the pests. The four people in Florida are believed to be first ones to contract the virus from mosquitoes within the 50 states.
Official Public Health England recommend all travellers consider an individual risk assessment before travelling to areas reporting sporadic Zika transmission, but that pregnant women “consider postponing non-essential travel”.
The announcement came after Florida Department of Health officials said they are investigating four Zika cases in Miami-Dade and Broward that might not be linked to people traveling out of state. Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs said repellent is sold at entrances to the Orlando area’s three major theme parks.
Dr. Morshed can’t say the same for areas somewhat closer to Florida, like Southern Ontario or Quebec, because mosquito species can differ between provinces. “We just happen to be at the forefront”, Florida Gov. Rick Scott said.
“They keep their property very clean, spic and span”, said Carl Boohene, director of mosquito control in Polk County, where LEGOLAND Florida is located. The disease produces mild symptoms for most, such as headache, feverishness and red eyes, and 80 per cent of healthy people who become infected suffer no symptoms.
“We have lots of mosquitos but we don’t have the species that are capable of spreading Zika virus in B.C”. But the mosquitoes that carry the virus – called the yellow fever mosquito – are “not established” in Canada, and wouldn’t be suited to our climate, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The parks intensified their fight against nuisance mosquitoes over a decade ago when the West Nile virus first surfaced in the US, said industry consultant Dennis Speigel.
Health officials have been long predicting this would happen in the continental USA sometime this summer, probably in Florida and Texas, because of the types of mosquitoes that thrive there and the large numbers of people who travel back and forth to Latin America. Florida had more than 106 million visitors previous year, and tourism is the state’s biggest industry.
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Florida’s governor has allocated over $25 million for dealing with Zika, and the White House and the CDC have provided over $10 million. 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.
