Officials encourage travelers not to shun Florida for Zika

Florida and national health officials reported the first local transmission of the Zika virus in a U.S. state on Friday, as the state began an “aggressive” investigation and federal authorities short on funding braced for a health crisis. The Zika virus strain circulating in the current outbreak affecting Central and South America and the Caribbean is of the Asian lineage.

“These [U.S.] cases are not unexpected”.

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.

“We have lost vital months where states and territories could have been building the capacity to control mosquitos, clean up breeding grounds and educate the public”, Gostin said. It said the risk in Florida from Zika was considered moderate based on the number and spread of cases.

Florida’s governor said Friday, July 29, that the state likely has the first cases of Zika transmitted by mosquitoes on the USA mainland.

Three patients in two Yorkshire hospitals have tested positive for the Zika virus after returning from overseas trips. He said CDC would reassess that advice if there is evidence of Zika spreading rapidly in the area.

For more on the virus, state statistics, prevention tips and the workshop, see Sunday’s Palm Beach Daily News in print and online.

“Puerto Rico is in the midst of a Zika epidemic”.

This route is the most damaging to the fetus, and is most likely to leave the child with birth defects, including microcephaly.

While health officials have yet to identify mosquitoes carrying the virus, the state has ruled out other means of transmission, including travel to another country with a Zika outbreak and sexual contact.

It is typically transmitted through bites from the Aedes species of mosquitoes. Florida officials said they are still looking into the cases and have not come to a conclusion. The reason: better insect control as well as window screens and air conditioning that should help curtail any outbreaks.

Health officials said the US might see small clusters of infections.

For now, officials say, the area of concern is limited to several blocks in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, where all four of the mosquito-borne transmissions appear to have taken place. “In fact, there may well be more cases that we’re not aware of right now because most people infected with Zika don’t have symptoms”, Frieden said.

Gov. Rick Scott confirmed that “active transmissions of this virus could be occurring in one small area in Miami”.

CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said the agency is always ready to assist states for with Zika, including Florida. Research has put a special emphasis on Florida in the Gulf Coast states. Congress bears much of the blame for Zika’s devastation because we turned down every chance we had to stop it from coming here.

“I think pregnant women should stay away from areas that have had dengue outbreaks in the continental USA”, which includes the Florida Keys, Houston and the border of Texas and Mexico, she says.

The department reported two new travel-related cases Thursday, both involving pregnant women, raising the statewide total to 383 people who have contracted the virus this year, including 55 expectant mothers.