FLA. SCHOOLS WILL OPEN THEIR DOORS
Experts answer some vital questions on avoiding infection
Children head back to school Monday in Miami-Dade County, Fla., where health officials are battling a Zika outbreak in the Wynwood neighborhood part of Miami Beach.
Students also return to schools in other cities, including Houston, whose steamy climate, large number of international travelers and hefty mosquito population increase the risk of Zika.
USA TODAY’s Liz Szabo asked health experts to talk about the health risks for children and whether youngsters could help spread the virus.
Q. HOW DANGEROUS IS ZIKA FOR CHILDREN?
A. Zika is no more dangerous to children than adults, said Amesh Adalja, a senior associate at the Center for Health Security at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Zika poses the greatest risk to pregnant women, whose fetuses can develop severe brain damage and other birth defects.
Like adults, most children infected with Zika never realize it. About 80% of people with Zika have no symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When symptoms develop, they’re usually mild. Both children and adults can develop fever, rash, joint pain and muscle ache. Hospitalizations and deaths due to Zika are very rare and usually affect older people with chronic illness. Q. WILL CHILDREN BE RETURNING TO SCHOOL IN MIAMI NEIGHBORHOODS WHERE ZIKA IS SPREADING?
A. Yes. The Wynwood neighborhood north of downtown Miami is home to public and charter schools. Q. HOW BIG IS THE RISK TO KIDS WHO ATTEND SCHOOL IN WYNWOOD?
A. The risk is “remote,” said Grayson Brown, a professor of entomology at the University of Kentucky. Window screens and air conditioning protect students indoors from mosquito bites. And because the mosquitoes that spread Zika are skittish, they aren’t likely to bite children running around on the playground.
“A child will have a much greater chance of getting infected at a bus stop or other activity where they are standing still outdoors in the early morning or late afternoon,” Brown said. Q. HOW CAN PARENTS PREVENT CHILDREN FROM GETTING INFECTED?
A. Parents can dress their children in light-weight pants and long sleeves, although youngsters in hot climates may protest, said Claire McCarthy, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
Spraying children with insect repellent that contains up to 30% DEET also helps, McCarthy said. Spraying arms, legs or other exposed skin in the morning should protect a child all day, Brown said.
Parents can spray children’s clothing with an insecticide that contains the chemical permethrin, although they shouldn’t spray that chemical directly onto skin, McCarthy said. Q. WHAT SHOULD SCHOOLS DO TO PROTECT CHILDREN?
A. Schools should take mosquito control seriously and remove any standing water where mosquitoes can breed, Adalja said. Mosquitoes that spread Zika can breed in as a little as a bottle cap of water, so it’s important to remove trash.
Schools also can ask professional pest control specialists to spray insecticides around the perimeter of the school, Brown said. School staff should look for Zika symptoms in children, as well. Q. HOW DOES ZIKA SPREAD?
A. Zika spreads mostly through the bite of infected mosquitoes, said Denise Jamieson, a physician with the CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
Zika also can be spread through sex, from a pregnant mother to her fetus and through blood transfusions. Q. KIDS ARE GREAT AT SPREADING COLD AND FLU VIRUSES. COULD SCHOOLCHILDREN SPREAD ZIKA?
A. Zika doesn’t spread casually from person-to-person through coughing, sneezing or touching, Jamieson said.
People can’t catch Zika by touching a doorknob.
The mosquitoes that primarily transmit Zika, the Aedes aegypti species, tend to be homebodies, traveling less than 500 feet in their whole lives, Jamieson said. Zika has spread around the world, however, through the travels of infected human beings, Adalja said.
Like anyone else, children bitten by infected mosquitoes can carry the Zika virus in their blood, infecting any new mosquitoes that bite them. That’s how the Zika virus has spread around the world, Adalja said.