MORE ABOUT ZIKA
COMPILED BY LUCY MANESS WARNER
AUGUST 9 2016

There are just too many Zika stories today, so I segregated them as one subject. Two new things are in here, the first Zika death in the US, and the first mosquito related Zika case outside the 10 Sq. Mile area in Miami. It’s moving like a snail, mainly because these mosquitoes do not fly far from their birthplace, but it is moving. Let’s get those vaccines on the market and spraying for the hateful bug.


ZIKA AND OTHER DISEASES

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-confirms-first-zika-related-death-infant-harris-county/

Death of infant is first Zika-related fatality in Texas
CBS NEWS
August 9, 2016, 10:25 AM

Photograph -- In this Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016 file photo, Darryl Nevins, owner of a Mosquito Joe franchise, sprays a backyard to control mosquitoes in Houston, amid fears of the spreading Zika virus. AP PHOTO/PAT SULLIVAN

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - The first death related to the Zika virus in Texas was confirmed Tuesday by Houston-area officials, who said a newborn baby girl passed away as a result of the disease.

Harris County Public Health (HCPH) spokesperson Francisco Sanchez said the baby's mother traveled to Latin America during her pregnancy, where it is believed she became infected.

The baby had been born with birth defects, including microcephaly, and died shortly after being born, officials said.

Officials took care to emphasize that the death was travel-related, and that there were no signs the disease was being carried by local mosquitoes, as is currently the case in southern Florida.

Follow
Francisco Sanchez @DisasterPIO
IF there is a locally transmitted case of #Zika in Harris, @ReadyHarris will activate its Emergency Center. NO local transmission as of now.
10:08 AM - 9 Aug 2016
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Umair A. Shah, Executive Director of HCPH, said in a statement: "While this is a travel-associated case, we know that prevention is key to reducing the risk of Zika virus infection.Harris County Public Health continues to actively work on protecting the community from mosquito-related diseases, but individuals must also protect themselves from getting bitten by mosquitoes locally and abroad."

CBS Houston affiliate KHOU reports that over the weekend, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott detailed the state's efforts to be prevent the spreading of Zika.

"I directed the Texas Department of Health Services to work closely with our local partners as well as with our partners at the Center for Disease Control to prevent a Zika outbreak here in Texas as well as to prepare the strongest possible Zika response plan," Abbott said. "We have assembled millions in state and federal funds to help attack the problem."

More than 7,300 Americans have been diagnosed with Zika, including 1,825 in the continental U.S. and Hawaii, according to the CDC.

In Florida, at least 17 people have been infected with Zika spread by mosquitoes, mostly in a small, trendy neighborhood in Miami. So far, officials have not reported any Zika-related deaths there. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned expectant mothers to steer clear of the city's Wynwood neighborhood.



FL Exact Locations, including map

http://www.floridahealth.gov/diseases-and-conditions/zika-virus/index.html?utm_source=flhealthIndex

Zika Virus

Zika fever is a mild febrile illness caused by a mosquito-borne virus similar to those that cause dengue and West Nile virus infection. It has been identified in several countries in Central and South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean since 2015. Outbreaks have previously been reported in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Local transmission has also been reported in Puerto Rico. Cases of Zika fever have been reported in travelers returning to the United States.

Florida has confirmed local transmissions of the Zika virus in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. At this time, the department believes active transmissions of the Zika virus are occurring in a one-square mile area in Miami-Dade County, just north of downtown. The exact location is within the boundaries of the following area: NW 5th Avenue to the west, US 1 to the east, NW/NE 38th Street to the north and NW/NE 20th Street to the south. Florida’s small case cluster is not considered widespread transmission.

Update: Aug. 4, 2016 - 16:22 EST
The department has completed testing in a 10 block area of the northwest quadrant (see map below) of the one-square mile area and no people within the 10 block radius tested positive. The department has cleared that area and is continuing to test people within the one-square mile radius.

the department still believes active transmissions of the Zika virus are occurring in one small area in Miami-Dade County, just north of downtown. The exact location is within the boundaries of the following area: NW 5th Avenue to the west, US 1 to the east, NW/NE 38th Street to the north and NW/NE 20thStreet to the south, this area is about one square mile. The department has completed testing in a 10 block area of the northwest quadrant of the one-square mile area.



http://www.sun-sentinel.com/health/fl-zika-palm-beach-local-case-20160808-story.html

Palm Beach County gets first local case; S. Florida gets Zika safe sex billboards
Diane C. Lade Contact Reporter
Sun Sentinel
August 9, 2016

Video -- Locally Acquired Zika Cases Rises In South Florida
Video -- Florida Gov: '4 People Likely Have Zika As A Result Of Mosquito Bite'
Related: Wasserman Schultz speaks to senior citizens about Zika virus
Pest companies cash in with Zika
Gov. Scott Tours Wynwood, Discuss Zika Battle
Zika Fight Goes Airborne
Zika Concerns Prompt Street By Street Sweep & Call For More Funding


Governor Scott announced Monday that state health officials are investigating Palm Beach County's first locally transmitted case of the Zika virus.

The infected person recently had been in Miami-Dade County, according to a written statement from the Governor's Office, and investigators are trying to determine the source of the infection.

Florida's 17 locally acquired cases in Miami-Dade and Broward counties are the first in the continental United States. Thirteen of those cases are clustered in a 1-square-mile area centered around Miami's Wynwood Arts District.

At this point, state health officials think active Zika transmission is taking place only in the Miami-Wynwood cluster area. Officials closed investigations into two Broward cases: one involved someone who had traveled to the Miami cluster area; the infection source for the second case could not be determined.

In early August, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its first-ever advisory against travel to a U.S. destination when it advised pregnant women not to visit the Miami-Wynwood area. Zika can cause severe birth defects if a woman is infected during pregnancy.

Zika virus: Latest news and updates

The Florida Department of Health on Monday reported six new travel-related cases statewide, including two in Miami-Dade. One was in Tallahassee's Leon County and the first for that area.

Florida now has a total of 429 cases, including 55 involving pregnant women.

Miami-Dade has 106 travel-related cases, the most of any county. Broward has 55, and Palm Beach County has 20.

Zika investigations include testing the close contacts of positive patients, as well as trapping and screening local mosquitoes to see whether they carry the virus. So far, none of the more than 23,000 insect samples tested by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has been positive. Spokeswoman Jennifer Meale said Palm Beach County was among those that had submitted samples.

Meanwhile, prevention continues to be stressed as Florida enters its typically hottest and rainiest months, which are mosquitoes' peak breeding time. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation has unveiled three billboards with an unmistakable message: an image of a condom emblazoned with the words "Prevent Zika transmission."

Two of the signs are near the busy juncture of Interstate 95 and Interstate 595, close to Hollywood-Fort Lauderdale International Airport. The other billboard is in Homestead, along U.S. 1.

Scientific researchers, at first dubious, now agree that Zika can be sexually transmitted, although being bitten by an infected mosquito is the most common way to get the virus. Among the more than 1,800 Zika cases in the U.S. mainland, the CDC lists 16 as sexually transmitted.

The CDC has issued multiple updates on how couples — particularly those where one person is pregnant, or one person has traveled to a Zika hot spot — should protect themselves from sexual transmission. Recommendations are to use a condom or abstain from eight weeks to six months, depending on the situation.

The Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation placed the billboards in areas it previously targeted for safe sex campaigns, said spokesman W. Imara Canady. The media fever around Zika provides a good opportunity to educate everyone about safe sex, he said.

"We want to encourage people to be proactive about having healthy and safe sexual interactions," Canady said.



http://www.ibtimes.com/zika-virus-vaccine-florida-update-hillary-clinton-miami-urge-emergency-funding-2399176

Zika Virus Vaccine Florida Update: Hillary Clinton In Miami To Urge Emergency Funding, Congress To Reconvene
BY SUSMITA BARAL @SUSHBARAL ON 08/09/16 AT 9:19 AM


Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is scheduled to visit the Borinquen Medical Center in Miami where, according to her aides, she will call for Congress to come back in session early and pass legislation to provide emergency funding for the Zika virus.

Prior to this month, known Zika cases in the U.S. were found in patients who had recently visited the Caribbean or Latin America. Last week, the Florida Department of Health pinpointed one neighborhood in Miami, Wynwood, where the virus is being transmitted by mosquitos. Gov. Rick Scott announced on Monday that the Florida Department of Health is investigating a potential outbreak in Palm Beach County.

President Barack Obama requested a $1.9 billion emergency spending request in February to tackle the virus. But Congress remained in a stalemate and went on a seven-week recess without coming to an agreement on the funding.

Currently there is no vaccine to prevent Zika — which primarily transmits from mosquitoes but can also spread via sex — or cure for it, but the National Institutes of Health is in its second phase of a clinical trial for a vaccine. Budgetary concerns leaves the future of the phase 2 trial murky, as the secretary of Health and Human Services warned that existing resources will be depleted by the end of the month.

Clinton, who supports the bill, has previously addressed the congressional gridlock in a Sun Sentinel op-ed, where she wrote that Congress “needs to act quickly to provide federal emergency funding.”

Clinton continued: “Zika is real. It’s dangerous. And if we’re serious about stopping this epidemic in its tracks, then there’s no time to waste.”



LATEST INFORMATION ON ZIKA VACCINE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlQHqAMj27Y
Published on Aug 5, 2016

Scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland, have developed a vaccine for the Zika virus. They received a strain of the virus from Puerto Rico in November 2015, and have since created a purified inactivated virus, like the flu shot. The vaccine is called ZPIV, and so far, it looks promising that military medical research will be a key contributor to preventing the continued spread of the Zika virus.

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Science & Technology
License
Standard YouTube License



EXCELLENT IN DEPTH INFORMATION ON VIRUS AND VACCINE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83-dIXicBjo

A Human Vaccine for the Zika Virus May Be Coming Sooner Than You Think
Zika Virus Vaccine
Vincent Racaniello
Published on Jul 25, 2016

The first experimental Zika virus vaccine has been published, and in this episode of Virus Watch, I explain how it works - it's a DNA vaccine - compared with all the other vaccines out there.

Category -- Science & Technology
License -- Standard YouTube License



http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/local/first-non-travel-related-zika-case-reported-in-pal/nsCH3/


Photograph -- First non-travel related Zika case reported in Palm Beach County photo
(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)


The first case of locally-acquired Zika virus has arrived in Palm Beach County.

Gov. Rick Scott said Monday the infected person recently traveled to Miami-Dade County, ground zero for an outbreak of Zika acquired through domestic mosquitoes. State health officials are attempting to determine where the unidentified person contracted the virus.

Palm Beach County has first case of locally-acquired Zika virus photo
(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Before Monday’s announcement, the state said that 20 people in Palm Beach County had been infected while traveling outside the United States to countries — mostly in the Caribbean and Latin America — where the virus is widespread.

South Florida has 17 cases of locally-acquired Zika, including at least 14 in a one-square-mile area in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, a popular arts district just north of the city’s downtown. There have also been two confirmed cases in Broward County of non-travel-related Zika.

Scott said Monday that state officials still believe local transmission of Zika remains confined to the Wynwood area. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took the unprecedented step last week of warning pregnant women not to travel to Wynwood. People who have visited Wynwood since June 15 have been advised by the CDC to put off getting pregnant for several weeks.


Zika has relatively mild effects on adults but has been shown to cause microcephaly, a devastating birth defect that results in underdeveloped heads and brains in newborns.

The Florida Department of Health has begun taking samples and questioning neighbors of the Palm Beach County resident with the locally-acquired virus.

A health department spokeswoman declined to name the neighborhood where the Zika patient lives because “that information is part of an ongoing epidemiological investigation and is protected under Florida Statute.”

“I assume that they have this person monitored and they’re spraying very aggressively in the area where this person is living to hopefully prevent any additional transmission,” said Tim Tellinghuisen, associate professor of immunology and microbial science at Scripps Research Institute.

Zika is transmitted through bites from the mosquito species known as Aedes aegypti, which can also spread yellow fever, dengue and chikungunya. The Aedes aegypti — only the females bite — are mostly found in urban areas and can breed practically anywhere, including on a few droplets of rain on a fallen leaf.

“The nice thing is this species of mosquitoes don’t travel very far from where they hatch — maybe 100 or 200 feet,” Tellinghuisen said. “The downside is that you’re dealing with a mobile population of people moving in and out of the area.”

The state has tested 2,515 people for Zika, including 132 in Palm Beach County, said Sarah Revell, spokeswoman for the department of health.

Aside from the 17 people who contracted the virus in Florida by local transmission, 357 travel-related cases of Zika have been confirmed as of Monday, including 55 involving pregnant women.

With the new school year set to begin, Scott said Monday that the state will begin distributing mosquito repellent and educational material on Zika prevention to all public schools as well as colleges and universities in Monroe, Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Martin counties.

Tellinghuisen said that despite the growing number of locally-acquired and travel-related cases of Zika in the state, residents should not become overly concerned.

“It’s nothing to really be panicked about,” Tellinghuisen said. “For most people, this virus doesn’t cause significant problems beyond a rash and a mild fever. We’re not talking about an Ebola-like situation.”

Ebola is an often fatal disease that killed thousands during an outbreak in 2014 in West Africa.

Staff writer John Kennedy contributed to this story.