Four Zika Cases Likely Came from Mosquitoes in U.S.

Four Zika Cases Likely Came from Mosquitoes in U.S.

IN a highly unusual travel warning, US health officials have advised pregnant women to avoid a part of Miami where mosquitoes are apparently transmitting Zika directly to humans.

Health officials last week announced that mosquitoes have apparently started spreading Zika on the US mainland, citing four cases they strongly believe were caused by bites.

Another 10 cases were announced on Monday, even though Florida authorities have yet to find any mosquitoes actually carrying the virus.

Of the 14 people infected, two are women and 12 are men. Eight patients showed symptoms of Zika, which can include fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes. The others had no symptoms.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is making available more than $US16 million ($21.2 million) to US states and territories in their fight against the Zika virus, in addition to the $US25 million it had sanctioned in July.

The new funding — for 40 states and territories — will be used to provide real-time data about the epidemic as it unfolds in the US and help those affected by the virus.

ZIKA SPREADING IN MIAMI, FLORIDA

Government health officials warned pregnant women on Monday to avoid the Zika-stricken part of Miami and told couples who have been there recently to put off having children for at least two months.

The CDC also said expectant mothers should get tested for the virus if they have visited the neighbourhood since mid-June.

CDC officials said they could not remember another time in the 70-year history of the disease-fighting agency when it told members of the public not to travel someplace in the US.

Infectious disease expert William Schaffner, from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, said the last outbreak that led people to avoid an American city may have been polio in the 1940s, according to USA Today.

Florida health officials said they have tested more than 200 people in Miami-Dade and Broward counties since early July.

An emergency response team from the CDC will help Florida authorities investigate the outbreak, collect samples and control mosquitoes.

All 14 cases are thought to have occurred in Miami’s Wynwood arts district, a trendy, fast-gentrifying neighbourhood of warehouses, art galleries, restaurants and boutiques.

Rosemary LeBranch was doing laundry in Wynwood when health officials came to her house a few days ago and took urine samples from her, her daughter and her father. Her father, Gabriel Jean, tested positive for Zika, she said on Monday.

He had already spoken with a doctor and was advised to wear long shirts and pants outdoors.

“He said nothing hurts; he doesn’t have any pain. He doesn’t feel anything,” she said.

WATCH: "We haven't achieved good mosquito control in that area." CDC Dir. on #Zika outbreak in Miami area. https://t.co/vcU8bL2w9Z — Good Morning America (@GMA) August 2, 2016

CDC director Tom Frieden Good Morning America on Tuesday that officials were finding it hard to eradicate the mosquito in northern Miami.

“What we realised over the weekend was that the mosquito counts weren’t coming down as we’d like so we haven’t achieved good mosquito control in that area,” Frieden admitted.

“We now have our top experts on the ground working with the top folks in Florida to figure out what more can be done to knock down this very difficult to control mosquito.”

Frieden said some of the reasons could be that the mosquitoes are resistant to insecticides and that not enough breeding sites were eliminated.

More than 1650 cases of Zika have been reported in US states. Nearly all have been the result of travel to a Zika-stricken country or sex with someone who was infected abroad, but now more than a dozen people have been infected in the US.