Because Zika virus is primarily spread by mosquitoes, CDC recommends that travelers to Cayman Islands protect themselves from mosquito bites. Since then, the outbreak has affected more than 40 countries, including the United States.
Advertisement
In total, Florida has reported 461 travel-related Zika cases since early February, 57 of which are in pregnant women.
Reports published this week in the journal Eurosurveillance showed that one man’s semen showed evidence of Zika 188 days after the onset of his symptoms, while evidence was detectable in another man’s semen after 181 days.
Money for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which launched the first phase of a Zika vaccine trial last week, will come from other institutes within the NIH, Burwell said in a letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Due to the Zika virus, several infants were born with microcephaly, characterized by the head’s abnormal smallness.
In the case of arthrogryposis, the babies have restricted movement in some of their joints and sometimes the joints are stuck in a single position.
This new case brings the 2016 MS total of Zika cases to 15: Chickasaw (1), De Soto (1), Harrison (1), Hinds (1), Lafayette (1), Madison (2), Neshoba (1), Noxubee (1), Oktibbeha (2), Panola (2) and Rankin (2). “Zika is now present in nearly every part of Puerto Rico, and now we have the first local transmission in Florida, and there will certainly be more”.
Local mosquito transmission means that mosquitoes in the area are infected with Zika virus and are spreading it to people.
The Miami Herald reports that at a school board meeting Wednesday, Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said “aggressive application” of repellent should be done at home, not at school where some students may be allergic to the spray.
Scientists are already working on a live, attenuated vaccine that will use a strain of the Zika virus without the microcephaly-causing proteins, Jung added. According to the CDC, the virus can be transmitted through sexual contact.
Advertisement
Travelers and pregnant women are still encouraged to take precautions. The case did not count for the state because travel-related infections are charted by residency of the patient. DOH has concluded that no local transmissions of Zika are occurring in the newly cleared area (see map below- shaded area denotes cleared areas).
