Today the Florida Department of Health (Florida Health) said there was one new case of non-travel related Zika in Miami-Dade County. Officials said in a statement they believe this case originated in a pocket of the Wynwood neighborhood linked to other cases of locally transmitted Zika.
"The department still believes active transmissions are only taking place within the identified area that is less than one-square mile in Miami-Dade County," Florida health said in their daily Zika update.There are now 22 cases of locally transmitted Zika virus in Florida.
Florida Health also reported 14 new travel-related cases of Zika, raising those numbers to 382 cases. Fifty-seven of those cases are in pregnant women.
More details about patients in report
Today's news comes after the Wall Street Journal published details about the first non-travel related Zika patients, including that the first patient presenting with locally acquired Zika was a 23-year-old pregnant woman who went to the emergency room after feeling sick for 3 days.
The information comes from an internal report shared with health officials that describes each case of non-travel related Zika. Most of the patients had business ties to the Wynwood neighborhood, the heart of the 1-square mile "hot zone" just north of downtown Miami.
But the pregnant woman, along with two other men, did not have clear ties to the Wynwood neighborhood, and officials do not know where they were bitten by a mosquito carrying Zika virus.
According to the Wall Street Journal, 17 of the patients with locally transmitted Zika are men. One patient, referred to as "Broward #2" (named for the county he lives in) works for a company that does business in Brazil and employs people who travel there often. "Fourteen of the roughly 30 employees who work at the business in Wynwood reported they had typical Zika symptoms such as fever, rash, joint pain or conjunctivitis from early June to mid-July, according to the report," the Wall Street Journal reported.
Spraying reducing mosquito counts
In other Zika news, Miami-Dade County's mosquito control director said efforts to control Aedes aegypti mosquito populations in Miami through aerial spraying are going well, according to the Associated Press. Two weeks ago, two dozen mosquitos were found in traps each day, and now Chalmers Vasquez said just one mosquito was found per day per trap. Aerial spraying with the insecticide naled began last week.
In addition to aerial spraying, Mayor Carlos Gimenez said insecticide is being dropped into 150,000 storm drains in Miami.
See also:
Aug 10 Florida health update
Aug 10 Wall Street Journal article
Aug 10 Associated Press article
