Zika update: State receives 950 test kits from CDC

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday provided Florida with 950 of the 1,000 Zika antibody test kits that Gov. Rick Scott had requested last week, bringing the state’s total stock to 1,400 kits.

“While having these tests readily available is great progress, we are still waiting on the CDC to schedule a conference call with Florida hospital workers to ensure they fully understand the symptoms, treatments and proper precautions for Zika,” Scott said in a news release.

The number of confirmed Zika cases in Florida remains at 16.

None were acquired in the U.S., nor have they been in pregnant women.

There’s one reported case of Zika in Central Florida in Osceola County. The county, along with six others, is in the state of a public health emergency.

Health officials are actively searching for answers to the link between Zika infections and birth abnormalities.

On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, cosponsored legislation to allow government agencies to use more than $1 billion in unspent funds appropriated for Ebola to fight Zika.

“Congress needs to act now before the summer months arrive and the mosquito-borne virus becomes a burgeoning health crisis in Florida and other Southern states,” Buchanan said in a news release.

CDC’s Emergency Operations Center is now at its highest level of activation.

Dr. Mark Trolice, director of Fertility Center of Assisted Reproduction & Endocrinology in Winter Park, said he asks his patients to use discretion.

“I tell them to protect yourself as much as possible,” he said. “But certainly if the patients or their partner have traveled to the affected areas and they have not conceived, I recommend that they hold off until testing. I tell them it’s prudent to use barrier contraception during pregnancy.”