Florida governor declares Zika emergency

The order authorised the state’s agriculture department to boost the use of mosquito spray in those counties, primarily in residential areas.

Gov. Rick Scott declared a health emergency in four counties Wednesday after at least nine cases of the mosquito-borne Zika illness were detected in Florida.

Mexico is one of 26 Latin American and Caribbean countries and territories with a Zika-related travel alert from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prompting some expectant couples to steer clear of the region.

The virus has been linked to several thousands of cases of a serious birth defect called microcephaly, which causes babies to be born with small heads.

Now blood samples of suspected Zika virus cases are tested at the National Public Health Laboratory.

“Now that we know Zika virus can be transmitted through sex, this increases our awareness campaign in educating the public about protecting themselves and others”, said Zachary Thompson, DCHHS director. “We always looked at the point that this could be transmitted sexually”. The virus is also risky for those with compromised immune systems and has so far been reported in 20 countries in Latin America over the last nine months.

Doctors said 80 percent of patients bitten by infected mosquitoes do not experience any symptoms. For example, in 2008 a USA researcher who contracted the virus while working in Senegal reportedly spread it to his wife upon his return home.

The cases investigated in Dallas County were not transmitted by mosquitoes, but sex. There have been about 30 cases in the U.S.in the past year, all travelers who brought it into the country.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the virus is “spreading explosively” in the Americas.

But the virus has been connected to birth defects in places it has spread, such as Brazil. There is no threat to a fetus in the Texas case, the CDC said.

Zika was first identified in 1947 in Uganda. Only about one in five people have symptoms.