The Zika Virus Has Arrived In The Continental U.S.
~ By Niall McCarthy
n.mccarthy@statista.com
Federal health officials in the U.S. have warned pregnant women to avoid traveling to a neighborhood in Miami where up to ten more cases of Zika have been diagnosed, more than likely caused by local mosquitoes. According to officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this marks the first time that people have been warned to avoid a certain U.S. community on health grounds. Four cases of the virus were diagnosed at the weekend, presumably spread by local mosquitoes. This has now increased to ten with the outbreak currently confined to a 1-square mile area north of downtown Miami. A CDC emergency response team is now being sent to Florida to help contain the outbreak amid fears of another locally transmitted case in Miami-Dade County, outside the neighborhood where the other instances of Zika occurred.
According to data released by the CDC late last week, there were a total of 1,658 Zika cases across the continental U.S. as of July 27, the vast majority of which were travel-associated. The ten new cases in Miami, coupled with four at the weekend, has brought the total number of cases locally acquired through mosquitoes to 14. So far, U.S. overseas territories have had to cope with a substantial number of Zika cases, some 4,729 in all, the vast majority of which were locally transmitted.
SourceStatista.