Florida finds first local
mosquitoes with Zika virus
Send a link to a friend
[September 02, 2016]
By Bill Berkrot
(Reuters) - Florida officials on Thursday
said they have trapped the first mosquitoes that tested positive for the
Zika virus in the Miami area, further confirming reports of local U.S.
transmission of the illness that can cause severe birth defects.
|
Three mosquito samples tested positive from a small area in Miami
Beach where increased trapping and intensified mosquito control
measures are being implemented, the Florida Department of
Agriculture and Consumer Services said.
The Florida Department of Health has said there have so far been 49
cases of Zika in people believed to have contracted the virus in a
small area of Miami, but until now, the department had not found
infected mosquitoes.
"This find is disappointing, but not surprising," Commissioner of
Agriculture Adam Putnam said in a statement.
"Miami-Dade County, the City of Miami Beach, and state and federal
partners will continue to work aggressively to prevent the spread of
Zika," Putnam added.
The Zika-positive mosquitoes were found in surveillance traps in
Miami Beach.
Florida Governor Rick Scott on Thursday called on the state
department of health (DOH) to step up Zika prevention efforts.
"I have directed DOH to aggressively expand testing and outreach
efforts in the areas around the traps that caught the positive
mosquitoes," Scott said in a statement. "They will continue to go
door-to-door to educate residents on how to best protect their
families and homes from mosquitoes."
Those efforts will likely be hampered by a hurricane expected to hit
Florida overnight that will delay insecticide spraying and enhance
mosquito breeding conditions.
"We need Congress to do its part to provide the necessary emergency
resources to properly combat the spread of this virus," Miami Beach
Mayor Philip Levine said in a statement.
The U.S. Congress has failed to reach an agreement on emergency Zika
funding after President Barack Obama requested $1.9 billion for
mosquito control, development of vaccines and diagnostics and other
efforts to combat Zika. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention has said it is running out of funds to fight the virus.
[to top of second column] |
The current Zika outbreak, first detected in Brazil last year, has
rapidly spread across the Americas.
Florida officials said more than 40,000 mosquitoes had been tested
since May, and that the three samples were the first to test
positive.
"It means that there is a substantial amount of Zika virus in that
population because it's actually not easy to find the virus in the
mosquitoes that you trap," said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of
medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt
University School of Medicine in Nashville.
Zika infection in pregnant women can cause the rare birth defect
known as microcephaly, which can lead to serious developmental
problems, and has also been linked to severe fetal brain
abnormalities.
(Reporting by Bill Berkrot and Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Frances
Kerry, Bernard Orr)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
|