First Zika case in Leon County confirmed

“They are quite severe”, Dr. Rais Vohra, an associate professor of emergency medicine, said. For months, doctors have been recommending pregnant women to avoid areas with Zika infections and now the CDC is calling for all soon-to-be mothers to be assessed by their doctors.

“It has been more than 165 days since the President requested emergency funding to fight Zika, but Congress has yet to pass a bill and public health now hangs in the balance: the time to act is now”, Schumer said at a morning press conference.

But that’s the point.

So, if you’ve been bitten by a mosquito in New York City, the mid-Atlantic states, or New England, for instance, the likelihood of your contracting Zika is close to zero. The company has been engaging in genetic modification of lots of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with a synthetic protein that gets rid of the offspring before they emerge as adults and transmit Zika or other diseases like Dengue. We know it can get into the blood supply.

Use air conditioning or window and door screens to keep mosquitoes outside.

In February the mosquito-borne illness was declared an worldwide public health emergency after outbreaks across Latin America. The disease is not new to Jamaica or the world and can occur as an isolated condition. Congress needs to quit playing around with people’s lives and send money to the CDC for Zika research and the state response.

Zika virus is quickly beginning to spread in the United States, and officials are doing everything they can to stop it.

Brazil has reported almost 166,000 suspected or confirmed Zika infections so far this year, according to the World Health Organization.

What’s happened since, with Zika-bearing mosquitoes reaching our shores as predicted, has only added to the questions and the urgency for answers and action.

“We have a problem [in Florida]”, he said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say there are close to 400 cases in Florida and almost 7,300 in the United States and U.S. Territories. Of the $374 million, about half, $180 million, has been obligated.

The IOC ignored a plea by scientists and public health experts to postpone or move the games with what amounted to a claim the event was too big to fail. Congress is not expected to take up the issue again until September.

Yet lawmakers left Washington in mid-July for a seven-week recess without approving any of the $1.9 billion that Obama requested in February to develop a vaccine and control the mosquitoes that carry the virus.

In June, a bill that would have given $1.1 billion to fight Zika through next September was voted down by Senate Democrats. Travelers can bring Zika back home with them and then spread the disease through sexual contact.

This line of reasoning about zero-sum budgeting has gained popularity in recent years among the most zealous conservatives in Congress.

Unfortunately, holding important public health initiatives like Zika prevention hostage has become a standard tactic in a Congress that places a higher priority on ideological obstruction.