Zika on the march in US
REUTERS MIAMI Mosquitoes have apparently begun spreading the Zika virus on the United States mainland for the first time, health officials say, a long-feared turn in the epidemic that is sweeping Latin America and the Caribbean.
Four recently infected people in the Miami area – a woman and three men – were believed to have contracted the virus locally through mosquito bites, Florida Governor Rick Scott said yesterday.
No mosquitoes in Florida have so far been found to be carrying Zika, despite the testing of 19,000 by the state laboratory. But other methods of transmission, such as travel to a stricken country or sex with an infected person, have been ruled out.
‘‘Zika is now here,’’ said Dr Thomas Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Still, US health officials said they did not expect widespread outbreaks like those seen in Brazil, in part because of better sanitation, better mosquito control, and wider use of window screens and air conditioners.
The virus has triggered alarm across the Western Hemisphere’s warmer latitudes. While most people who get Zika don’t know they are sick, infection during pregnancy can cause severe REUTERS brain-related birth defects, including microcephaly, where babies are born with abnormally small heads.
More than 1650 people in the mainland US have been infected with Zika in recent months, nearly all while travelling abroad.
‘‘This is not just a Florida issue. It’s a national issue – we just happen to be at the forefront,’’ Scott said.
Florida agricultural officials immediately announced more aggressive mosquito control efforts, and Florida politicians have rushed to assure tourists that it is still safe to visit the state.
Some medical experts said pregnant women should not travel to the Miami area. The CDC is not issuing such advice, however.
Health officials said the US might see small clusters of infections. But ‘‘we don’t expect widespread transmission in the continental Frieden said.
The four Florida infections were thought to have occurred in a small area just north of downtown Miami, in the Wynwood arts district, Scott said. The area is rapidly gentrifying and has a number of construction sites where standing water can collect and serve as a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
‘‘If I were a pregnant woman right now, I would go on the assumption that there’s mosquito transmission all over the Miami area,’’ warned Dr Peter Hotez, a tropical medicine expert. United States’’, AP