Pregnant women, doctors and public officials need to take Zika seriously, Hotez said. These travelers have gotten the virus from mosquito bites and some non-travelers got Zika through sex with a traveler. To the left are Olivia Gomez, 5, and Kaly Fernandez.
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Although there have been over 1,600 cases of the virus confirmed by health officials in almost all 50 states, every patient save the four reports in Florida contracted the disease either travelling overseas or through sexual transmission.
Commenting on the Florida cases, the director of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, at a news briefing said, “Zika is now here”.
Some Miami residents said Friday that they were stocking up on mosquito repellent and planning to bring lunches to work instead of sitting at outdoor cafe tables under the Wynwood neighborhood’s bright murals.
Since the start of the Zika virus outbreak in Central and South America, the CDC has recommended pregnant women postpone travel to countries where local transmission has occurred, even in some instances where the number of cases was small.
The virus has triggered alarm across the warmer latitudes of the Western Hemisphere. The virus causes fever, rash and pain, and it also causes severe birth defects when pregnant women contract the virus through mosquito bites or from a partner. Rosebo has seen Miami-Dade mosquito control personnel spraying in the area the last few days.
The Public Health Agency of Canada also says that in addition to being sexually transmitted, Zika can also spread via contaminated blood. However, the CDC is not issuing such advice.
“This is the news we’ve been dreading”, said Edward McCabe, senior vice president and chief medical officer at the March of Dimes, who said his group is “deeply concerned” that Zika appears to be spreading among home-grown mosquitoes.
The Zika virus can be especially risky for pregnant women.
He later added, “This is not just a Florida issue”.
Earlier in July, authorities began investigating the possible first local transmission of Zika, but Scott’s near-confirmation on Friday amounted to a serious development of the feared health crisis. The Aedes aegypti mosquito is behind the large outbreaks of Zika virus in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“This means Florida has become the first state in our nation to have local transmission of the Zika virus”, Gov. Scott told reporters during a press conference on Friday.
“The risk in Florida is considered moderate based on the number and spread of cases and their demonstrated ability to implement effective control measures for similar diseases such as dengue — a virus transmitted by the same mosquito”, the health agency said in its public guidance.
“We know the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is known to carry Zika virus, is present in Florida”, said Paul Cosford, director of health protection at Public Health England. “Where they were playing baseball?”
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Hotez said that advice may not go far enough. “That really does concern me”.
