County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said in a statement Wednesday, Sept. 7 that the spraying to fight the Zika virus scheduled for Thursday morning was moved to Friday morning.
Advertisement
Now, negotiations are underway to break the impasse over Zika and add it to the only piece of legislation that has to pass Congress before the election: A stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown on October 1.
Zika is spreading more widely in the USA and cannot only cause microcephaly – in which babies are born with grave brain defects – but other problems that the country will face for decades. The Senate earlier this week once again rejected the latest attempt at a funding package.
The health department warned travelers to Zika-hit areas to take precautions to avoid sexual spread and for others to take steps to avoid mosquito bites. Now, as far as Brazil is concerned, it seems many of those women may have an additional choices. Also, Zika can cause an array of birth defects, certainly microcephaly, a condition wherein a child’s head is born partially formed, and possibly other issues like the nerve disorder Guillian-Barre syndrome in adults over age 60, and arthrogryposis, a rare joint abnormality, in newborns.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, there are now 59 Zika test results pending in the state.
“We have about 90,000 local governments, many of which have some sort of a public health responsibility, ranging from running clinics to mosquito abatement districts” he said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on mosquito-borne diseases. An overwhelming majority of Zika infections are connected to travel to areas were the virus is circulating among mosquitoes.
The CDC also is advising pregnant women not to travel to an area where active Zika transmission is ongoing, and to use insect repellent and wear long trousers and long-sleeved shirts if they are in those areas. Democrats objected to a provision that would have barred funding to Planned Parenthood. “We don’t have the funding to make those determinations ourselves”.
West Nile Virus has been detected in all but four counties- Ocean, Cumberland, Cape May and Warren counties have no positive tests so far. “It’s potentially catastrophic, and it’s certainly that for the kind of brain damage we’re seeing”.
The state Department of Health on Friday reported 12 new travel-related cases of Zika, with seven in Miami-Dade, two in Broward County, and one each in Hillsborough, Okaloosa and Orange counties.
Ridding yards of mosquito breeding habitats, avoiding travel to places where mosquitoes carry Zika, and using mosquito repellent are the best prevention to infection, according to experts.
“Is the chance there?”
“This is something that is very serious”, she said, adding that her research shows symptoms won’t appear for weeks later after exposure.
Advertisement
“I am not anti-pesticide”, Chapman said.
