US ups the war against Zika
August 13, 2016, 2:19 pm

US officials have spread a one-square mile zone in Miami in a bid to destroy the Aedes Aegyptus mosquito which carries the Zika virus [Xinhua]

US Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell said in a statement: “This [Obama] administration is committed to meeting the Zika outbreak in Puerto Rico with the necessary urgency.”

The US territory of Puerto Rico can now ask for more federal funds to train staff to combat the spread of the virus.

In late July, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention set up a fund of nearly $60 million to states, cities, and territories battling the virus.

In the meantime, Congress has been unable to pass a bill to establish new funding for Zika prevention, treatment, and vaccine research.

The Obama administration on Friday stepped in and diverted some $81 million from other health care programs to fund research to find a vaccine. This new funding comes after an earlier $589 million allocated to Zika research last April.

The Department of Health and Human Resources says that most of that initial amount has been spent.

Meanwhile, the state of Florida has mobilized to combat the spread of the Zika virus there.

On July 29, health officials in Florida said they had discovered at least four cases where people contracted the Zika virus directly from mosquito bites.

The cases, all reported in the Miami-Dade county, mark the first time the authorities have cited direct mosquito to human transmission in the continental United States.

Since then, more locally transmitted cases have been reported taking the total to 14.

On August 4, Florida health officials said they believe a majority of the Aedes Aegyptus mosquitoes, which carry and transmit the Zika virus, were killed after insecticide was sprayed in the Wynwood aread of Miami-Dade County.

Health officials are also concerned because the city of Miami is considered a major destination and transit point for people traveling from Latin America, where the virus has been spreading since last summer.

The Zika virus was first reported in a monkey living in the Zika Forest in Uganda in 1947, and spread to humans in Africa and Asia within a few years.

The Aedes mosquito, which inhabits tropical areas, bites an infected person and then carries the virus to another person it bites. The virus is transmitted from a mother to a child during pregnancy or birth.

But since last summer, when the hardest hit country Brazil first reported a Zika outbreak, scientists have discovered that the virus can also be sexually transmitted.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies