Counties staying ahead of Zika
S. Florida scrambling to keep out Zika
Nowthat storm season is here, Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach county officials say they are stepping up mosquito control efforts in order to prevent the number of Zika transmission cases from spiking. Workers, traps and spray trucks are all being increased.
Soon after this month’s record rains fell, phone calls flooded South Florida mosquito-control programs seeking relief.
The thousands of daily callswere a sign that residents haven’t forgotten last year’s Zika scare.
The region’s wet season kicked off this month, and officials say they are doing everything they can to prevent the number of Zika transmission cases fromspiking.
Among the steps they’re taking:
Miami-Dade County has tripled the workers involved with mosquito control.
Broward County will go from monitoring several hundred mosquito traps last year to using several thousand this year.
Palm Beach County is buying two Buffalo Turbine truck sprayers that are touted as being able tomore effectively spread the larvicide needed to kill unhatched mosquito eggs lurking in standingwater in people’s yards.
The Zika virus can produce amild illness lasting up to a week, and four out of five victims won’t even realize they’re infected, but getting the infection during a pregnancy can cause serious birth and brain defects to the fetus.
So far, the reported number of South Florida residents who contracted Zika while traveling abroad is down significantly this year when compared with the same period a year ago.
Broward, Palm Beach and MiamiDade counties have 46 travel-related cases of Zika so far this year, according to state health officials, while they had 80 cases through June 10 last year.
Overall, since January 2016, the FloridaDepartmentofHealth reports most of South Florida’s Zika cases have come from residents traveling abroad: 377 cases in Miami-Dade, 197 in Broward and 69 in Palm Beach.
As for people contracting Zika in South Florida, which is of greater