Zika virus: Florida steps up investigation after first local transmission

“The critical issue is to make sure that those local cases don’t become disseminated and don’t become sustained and the way you do that is with very aggressive mosquito abatement programs”, says Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

Florida Governor Rick Scott announced on Friday that the Florida Department of Health (DOH) has concluded that four cases of the Zika virus are likely mosquito-borne in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties.

Florida has already seen almost 400 cases of Zika, all involving people who were infected while traveling to parts of the world where the virus is circulating. “All four of these people live in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties and the Florida Department of Health believes that active transmissions of this virus could be occurring in one small area in Miami”.

The Zika virus is spread by bites from two mosquito species: Aedes aegypti (primarily) and Aedes albopictus, both found in Florida.

Health officials have warned Americans for more than a year to avoid travel to regions where the Zika virus posed a serious threat. Local, state, and federal officials, however, are continuing their investigation to see if there are more cases. The disease produces mild symptoms for most, such as headache, feverishness and red eyes, and 80 per cent of healthy people who become infected suffer no symptoms.

Fifty-three cases of Zika have been reported in the United Kingdom, according to The Guardian. Microcephaly is a birth defect that causes babies to be borne with unusually small heads. The agency considers the risk of a Zika outbreak in Canada to be low. The authorities have not asked people to stay away from the areas as the four cases were detected in July and since then the authorities have taken adequate measures for mosquito control. However, up until now the cases were the result of travel to a Zika-infected country or by sexual transmission with a partner who had been to a Zika-infected country.

News of the local transmission have also reignited calls for congress to pass a Zika spending bill.