Florida: 5 new Zika cases including 1 in the Tampa Bay area

Scott spoke during a Zika roundtable in the Pinellas County city of Clearwater, near Tampa.

South Dakota’s Health Department says a state resident has tested positive for the Zika virus – the first such case in the state.

A non-travel related case of Zika virus has been reported in Pinellas County today, one of five new cases reported statewide (the other four were reported in the Wynwood area of Miami).

Testing can show that someone is actively infected with Zika, or it can show that someone was infected in the past and has recovered.

If people are actively infected and haven’t traveled to another Zika-affected area, that suggests active local transmission. If they have antibodies to the virus but are not now infected, that could support the idea that active transmission is not still going on.

Zika is carried by mosquitoes, which transmit the virus to humans. A fifth new case was diagnosed in a Pinellas County resident who hasn’t traveled internationally. “We do not have the Zika-carrying mosquitoes in South Dakota; we’re not a tropical or sub-tropical state, so there’s no risk that it’s gonna spread”, Kightlinger adds.

There was no mention of any new Miami Beach cases in the statement.

The Florida Department of Health (DOH) has begun door-to-door outreach and sampling in Pinellas County and mosquito abatement and reduction activities are also taking place.

The governor has also urged Congress to release additional funding to the the state over Zika concerns.

People also spread Zika virus. A mosquito gets infected by biting an infected person – they can not fly very far.

A recent study published by Brazilian researchers from the D’Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Institute for Research Professor Amorim Neto (IPESQ), alongside Tel Aviv University and the Boston Children’s Hospital, indicates that microcephaly, a very usual feature in cases of Zika virus gestational infection, is just one of several observed brain changes. An estimated 80 percent of people infected have no symptoms, making it hard for pregnant women to know whether they have been infected.