Crews in Utah, meanwhile, are setting traps in old tires and junkyards and dumping mosquito-eating fish into ponds and abandoned pools after a man who cared for his dying father was infected with Zika as well.
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Still, even suspected cases trigger costly responses, as inspectors sweep areas to eliminate their breeding sites, set traps and kill any mosquitoes they see.
Health officials said lab tests confirmed the patient’s infection, and there’s no apparent connection to travel outside the country.
Exactly one week after a bill that would have granted more than $1 billion in funds to combat Zika failed in a GOP re-vote, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that it will be granting a total of $60 million to states, cities, and territories, to protect Americans from the virus.
Officials could not give many details about this new case in the Panhandle, but say the person infected traveled overseas to an area where Zika is spreading.
On Aug. 1, CDC also will award another $10 million to quickly identify cases of microcephaly and other adverse birth outcomes linked to Zika and to refer affected infants and families to services.
“Our local, state and territorial health departments are on the front lines in the fight against Zika, and though the necessary funding that is needed isn’t yet available, we can not wait to provide this essential support”, CDC Director Tom Grieden, MD., M.P.H said.
“The plan suggests there should be two or more cases within a one-mile area in people who do not live together, who did not have sex with Zika-infected people and who did not recently travel to countries with Zika outbreaks.”
“We want to make sure we reduce the mosquito population down to zero if possible in this case”, said Chalmers Vasquez, Miami-Dade County’s mosquito control operations manager. “It also includes our work with mosquito control personnel throughout the state who alert us if they detect mosquitoes that are carrying the virus”. “We’re doing hand-held spraying, and we’ll do more truck spraying Thursday”, said Gayle Love, a spokeswoman for Miami-Dade County Solid Waste Management.
There is no vaccine for Zika.
It is typically transmitted through bites from the Aedes species of mosquitoes.
In most people, Zika causes only a mild and brief illness, at worst.
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In Brazil, there has been mounting evidence linking Zika infection in pregnant women to a rare birth defect called microcephaly, in which a newborn’s head is smaller than normal and the brain may not have developed properly.
