(Newswire.net — July 30, 2016) —Florida Governor Richard Lynn Rick Scott said in a statement that there have been four confirmed cases which the state believes were transmitted locally.
Three men and one woman from Miami are infected, explained the Governor of Florida. Public health officials also announced that the Zika virus has arrived in the United States, confirming reports of four Florida patients infected by domestic mosquitoes.
The Florida Department of Health (DOH) reported in a statement that a high likelihood exists that the four cases are the result of local transmission of the tropical disease.
The World Health Organization declared global health emergency in February 2016. In the last year, Zika has spread to nearly 50 countries.
According to the The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about 1,400 people in the US have already been infected with the Zika virus all arising from travel to another country or sexual transmission. For now, the four new cases in Florida, are the first to be transmitted by a domestic mosquito bite.
“I’m already multiplying that number by a couple dozen more that we have missed,” infectious disease expert Peter Hotez, from the Baylor College of Medicine, told BuzzFeed News. “We are probably missing the vast majority of cases.”
Florida’s major blood bank announced it would start screening donations for Zika on August 1st. Several Texas blood banks have also started screening donations.
The virus is usually harmless to adults, and it’s flu-like symptoms disappear after two to seven days, but it is extremely dangerous to pregnant women as it is believed to cause birth defects.
By the end of January, six Brazilian provinces declared a state of emergency due to the number of babies born with microcephaly, which rose suddenly from 147 in 2014, to 2,400 in 2015. The authorities in Brazil have urged women to delay childbearing due to the high number of babies being born with this abnormality as it is suspected to have been caused by the Zika virus.
This virus is spread primarily via mosquito bite, but it is assumed that it may be possible to transfer it by kissing or through sexual intercourse.
There is no vaccine or medicine to prevent Zika.