The Florida Department of Health is investigating what could be the first non-travel related case of Zika Virus Disease in Miami-Dade County, according to CNN News.
Florida health officials have teamed up with the CDC to investigate the Zika case, and if it is proven that a local mosquito did infect the person, it will be the first case of Zika acquired within the continental United States.
A Zika case is being investigated in Florida; It could be the first homegrown case in the U.S. July 20, 2016
The Miami-Herald is reporting that while no details on the mode of transmission have been released, Zika is spread primarily by the bite of infected Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. The CDC has also reported cases of the virus spreading through blood transfusions, from pregnant mothers to their newborn children, and by sexual transmission.
Florida health officials also released the latest epidemiological information on the Zika virus Tuesday, reporting there are seven new cases of Zika virus, all of them acquired by people while traveling outside the country.
The cases included three in Broward County, three in Orange County and one in Miami-Dade. Miami-Dade leads the state with the greatest number of Zika cases, with 88 people acquiring the disease this year.
A spokesperson for the department of health, Mara Gambineri told reporters that all avenues of transmission were being investigated in this case, including the possibility it could be travel related. And until the investigation is complete, this is not the time to speculate.
But the Zika Virus raises more questions than it does answers. Health officials fully expect small, localized outbreaks to appear in some of our southern states, and this has been discussed in previous news stories. And with the different modes of infection popping up, the disease becomes even more mysterious.
The biggest worry is that someone infected by the Zika virus, perhaps due to a travel-related event, could be bitten by a local mosquito, infecting the mosquito. The mosquito, in turn, can then infect other humans it bites.
“It was only a matter of time before the right circumstances aligned in Florida,” a doctor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Center for Health Security tells NBC News.
1st death related to #Zika virus seen in continental #US: pic.twitter.com/6N3FkDoMDM
— maildotcom (@maildotcom) July 11, 2016
In a related issue concerning the Zika virus, in Utah, the family caregiver of an elderly patient who died from the Zika virus acquired while traveling outside the country, has come down with the Zika virus. Sexual contact has been ruled out, leaving a huge mystery as to how the caregiver was able to pick up the virus.
