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 US 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.
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It’s not unusual that no mosquitoes have tested positive for Zika, said C. Roxanne Connelly, a medical entomology specialist at the University of Florida and a past president of the American Mosquito Control Association. But he says one woman and three men in Miami-Dade and Broward counties likely contracted the virus through mosquito bites. These cases are believed to have caught the virus locally through mosquito bites. “What we have been doing is going out to the hotels and talking to the maintenance staff and educating them what to look for, because going out and mowing the grass and just keeping the place clean isn’t the same as looking for standing water”, said Terry Torrens, the county’s mosquito control director.
Behind the spread of the Zika virus is a tiny menace that just won’t go away.
Zika infections in pregnant women can have traumatic effects on their unborn children, causing microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The current outbreak was first detected in Brazil previous year and has since spread rapidly through the Americas.
Scott said active transmission is likely occurring in only one small area – about 1 square mile – north of downtown Miami.
Florida officials became aware of the potential Zika cluster in mid-July, and an investigation of the area found a significant number of mosquitoes that can spread Zika, Frieden said.
Florida has now announced more aggressive mosquito-control efforts, although the evidence from South America, where the outbreak started, is that these have limited benefit. The mosquito then bites someone else, spreading the virus.
Confirming mosquito-borne Zika infections is a tricky proposition, Frieden said.
“I think I might be done having kids”, Delgado said.
The CDC and other public health officials have said repeatedly they expect to see cases of local transmission of the Zika virus this summer in warm, humid southern states such as Florida, Louisiana and Texas.
However, at this time federal health officials have not recommended that pregnant women avoid travel to South Florida. The infected people had not traveled to other Zika-affected areas, and did not have sex with Zika-infected partners, which leaves mosquitoes as the likely culprits. Florida health officials said t. “Our top priority is to protect pregnant women from the potentially devastating harm caused by Zika”. Unless infected mosquitoes are discovered in traps – which is unlikely – investigators determine a case to be transmitted by mosquito by eliminating other sources of infection, like sexual contact with an infected person or travel-related infections that occurred while visiting locales where Zika infections are already occurring. There are no specific treatments or vaccines for the virus.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is asking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to reconvene Congress so lawmakers can pass an emergency spending bill to fight the spread of the Zika virus. Florida had more than 106 million visitors previous year, and tourism is the state’s biggest industry.
Florida has detected its first cases of locally transmitted Zika, which could pose a threat to the state’s sensitive – and important – tourist industry.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz called that “regrettable” and said: “Today’s news should be a wake-up call to Congress to get back to work”.
More than 1,650 people in the mainland US have been infected with Zika in recent months.
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Now that Zika has established itself in the USA mosquito population, it’s likely to prove tough to eradicate.
