Zika Virus 

Click below for Lee County Mosquito Control District’s response to suspected mosquito borne diseases.

Lee County Mosquito Control District Response

For the Center for Disease Control’s recommendation on protecting yourself and your property:

http://www.cdc.gov/zika/prevention/controlling-mosquitoes-at-home.html

For the Center for Disease Control’s fact sheet on aerial spraying: https://www.cdc.gov/zika/pdfs/aerialspraying-factsheet.pdf

There is an additional mosquito borne virus in the news. It is the Zika virus.

Zika virus is spread to people through the bite of an infected Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus mosquito. It can also be sexually transmitted, blood transfusion, through the womb and at the time of birth. The most common symptoms of Zika virus disease (Zika) are fever, rash, joint pain, and red eye. The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting from several days to a week. Severe disease requiring hospitalization is uncommon, but some people may experience neurological effects and it has produced poor pregnancy results such as microcephaly.

There are simple steps that we can all take to protect ourselves from Zika and all mosquito-borne illnesses, such as draining standing water weekly, no matter how seemingly small and cover your skin with mosquito repellent and protective clothing when enjoying the Florida outdoors.

Drain standing water from:

  • Garbage Cans
  • Pool Covers
  • Flower Pots
  • Buckets and Watering Cans
  • Kiddie Pools
  • Rain barrels that are not screened or covered

Practice these tips to avoid mosquito breeding:

  • Discard old tires, bottles, pots, broken appliances and other items that may collect water.
  • Empty and clean birdbaths and pets’ water bowls at least once or twice a week.
  • Flush bromeliads weekly or treat with mosquito larval control materials found at nursery stores.
  • Protect boats and vehicles from rain with tarps that do not accumulate water.
  • Maintain swimming pools in good condition and chlorination.
  • If decorative  fountains or garden ponds are not circulating with a pump and being maintained, add local minnows.
  • Keep gutters clean.

For frequently asked questions click here: zika-virus-fl-faq1.


For Children, nothing beats Sesame Street:

Sesame Street: if the mosquito can’t bite you, bye-bye Zika! PSAs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icJIdwn-kGI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAA8sQYlkn0


 

Published on May 9, 2016

Dr. Gavin Macgregor-Skinner talks to students in a National Library of Medicine Distance Learning Program about the Zika virus and how information technology can be used in efforts to combat it.

https://youtu.be/v9quox7im_8


 

More on Zika:

Outbreaks of Zika have occurred in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Because the Aedes species mosquitoes that spread Zika virus are found throughout the world, it is likely that outbreaks will spread to new countries. Zika virus is not currently found in the United States. However, cases of Zika have been reported in returning travelers.

There is no vaccine to prevent or medicine to treat Zika. Travelers can protect themselves from this disease by taking steps to prevent mosquito bites. When traveling to countries where Zika virus (see map) or other viruses spread by mosquitoes have been reported, use insect repellent, wear long sleeves and pants, and stay in places with air conditioning or that use window and door screens. CDC.

Origins

Zika was first identified in 1947 when a rhesus monkey living in the Zika forest in Uganda developed an unknown febrile illness. One year later the virus was found in the Aedes Africanus mosquito and then in Aedes Aegypti, both captured in the Zika forest.

The first outbreak outside of Africa occurred in 2007 when cases were confirmed in Yap Island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.

In 2009, it was discovered that Zika virus can be sexually transmitted between humans. Professor Brian Foy, a university biologist from Colorado State University, visited Senegal to study mosquitoes and was bitten on a number of occasions during his research. A few days after returning to the United States, he fell ill with Zika, and his wife subsequently showed symptoms, along with extreme sensitivity to light.

Foy and research assistant Kevin Kobylinsky released a study in the May 2011 journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases that detailed those events and provided evidence that Foy’s might have been the first case of the sexual transmission of an insect-borne disease.

The findings were validated by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, which considers Foy the first person known to have passed on an insect-borne virus to another human by sexual contact.

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For a summary of the Summit on the Aedes aegypti Crisis in the Americas click here:  Zika%20Summit%20Brazil%202016%20as%20reported%20AMCA

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The 1st case of Zika virus registered in Puerto Plata province

In this city of Puerto Plata [Puerto Plata province, Dominican Republic] the 1st case of Zika virus has been recorded, which, like dengue and chikungunya, is transmitted by the bite of the _Aedes aegypti_ mosquito. The patient is a 12 year old girl, [daughter of] a young lawyer resident in one of the southern sectors of Puerto Plata, hospitalized in a private clinic in Puerto Plata, where a medical team told her family that Zika virus is transmitted by the same mosquito as dengue and chikungunya, and the symptoms are similar to those of the above-mentioned epidemics but milder.

According to epidemiologists, the symptoms of Zika virus are fever, non-purulent conjunctivitis (without pus), headache, joint pain, rash, weakness, and sometimes, pain behind the eyes, swelling of the legs, loss of appetite, vomiting, diarrhea or abdominal pain, which lasts 4-7 days, and so far there are no reports of any deaths. If confirmed, this would be the 1st Zika case outside of Brazil in the Americas, indicating spread. – Mod.TY

[byline: Antonio Heredia]-

communicated by:

Roland Hubner

Superior Health Council

Brussels

Belgium

<roland.hubner@sante.belgique.be>

***************************************************************************************************************

Date: Tue 9 Jun 2015

Source: Outbreak News Today [edited]

<http://outbreaknewstoday.com/cdc-issues-another-travel-advisory-for-brazil-this-time-due-to-zika-virus-17197/>

 

Less than 2 months after issuing a travel notice for Brazil because of the dengue fever outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today [9 Jun 2015] issued another one because of a different mosquito borne virus, Zika virus.

 

This follows a report last month [May 2015] of 16 confirmed, locally transmitted cases of Zika [virus infection]. Cases have been reported in the states of Bahia and Rio Grande do Norte.

Zika is an illness caused by a virus that is spread to humans through mosquito bites, specifically the _Aedes mosquito_, the same one that transmits dengue fever, chikungunya, and yellow fever [viruses], all found in Brazil.

Symptoms of Zika may include fever, headache, red eyes, rash, muscle aches, and joint pains. The illness is usually mild, lasting 4-7 days.

There is currently no vaccine or medicine to prevent Zika. Travelers can protect themselves by preventing mosquito bites.

[Byline: Robert Herriman]–

Communicated by:

ProMED-mail from HealthMap Alerts

<promed@promedmail.org>

 

[Zika virus continues to spread in Brazil. In addition to the cases in Bahia and Rio Grande do Norte states mentioned in the report above, 3 cases have been identified retrospectively in Alagoas state, with onset at the beginning of 2015 in Mata Grande, which is on the border with Bahia state. There is also one confirmed case in Dom Eliseu, in the northwestern part of Para state and one confirmed locally acquired case in Rio de Janeiro state.

Some South and Central American countries have heeded PAHO advice and officially are on alert for cases of Zika virus infections. However, no mention is made of whether they have the laboratory capability to diagnose Zika virus infections, which is essential to differentiate them from cases of dengue and chikungunya virus infections, which are clinically and epidemiologically similar to each other.

Maps of Brazil showing the location of the states mentioned can be accessed at <http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/americas/brazil.jpg> and <http://healthmap.org/promed/p/6>. – Mod.TY]

[On 11 Jun 2015, Brazil news media reported 34 confirmed cases of Zika virus infection up to 10 Jun 2015 in 8 states: Bahia, Rio Grande do Norte, Sao Paulo, Alagoas, Para, Roraima, Rio de Janeiro and Maranhao,

see:

<http://www.promedmail.org/direct.php?id=3431199> (in Portuguese). – Mod.JW]

 

******

[2] Italy ex Brazil

Date: Thu 11 Jun 2015

Source: Eurosurveillance 20 (23) [summarized, edited] <http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=21153>

Zammarchi L, Tappe D, Fortuna C, Remoli ME, Gunther S, Venturi G, Bartoloni A, Schmidt-Chanasit J. Zika virus infection in a traveller returning to Europe from Brazil, March 2015.

Abstract:

We report a case of laboratory-confirmed Zika virus infection imported into Europe from the Americas. The patient developed fever, rash, and oedema of hands and feet after returning to Italy from Brazil in late March 2015.

The case highlights that, together with chikungunya virus and dengue virus, 3 major arboviruses are now co-circulating in Brazil. These arboviruses represent a burden for the healthcare systems in Brazil and other countries where competent mosquito vectors are present.

The case: A male Italian traveller in his early 60s presented to the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Unit, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Careggi, Florence (Italy) 4 days after his return from a 12-day holiday in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil at the end of March 2015.

Results of the serological tests for the other viruses tested were negative. A follow up sample, taken 26 days after symptoms onset, showed a 3-fold increase of the anti-ZIKV-IgM and -IgG antibody titres. In addition, a low-titre DENV IgG was now observed, most likely representing a serological cross-reaction of the anti-ZIKV-IgG antibodies. ZIKV-specific real-time reverse transcription-PCR was negative from both samples. Generic flavivirus and alphavirus RT-PCR were also negative. The presence of ZIKV-specific neutralising antibodies in the 2nd serum sample was confirmed by a virus neutralisation assay. The patient was discharged, managed, and followed up in the outpatient department. The patient was recommended symptomatic treatment with paracetamol. The symptoms rapidly resolved in the following week (fever and rash lasted for only 4 days).

Communicated by:

ProMED-mail

<promed@promedmail.org>

 

[This is an example of long-distance travel of a viremic individual to a country where a given virus, Zika virus in this instance, is not present. A similar situation occurred when chikungunya virus was introduced into Italy from India in 2007 and transmitted by _Aedes albopictus_.

 

A map of Italy, showing the location of Venice in the northwest, can be accessed at <http://www.mapsofworld.com/italy/>. – Mod.TY

 

A HealthMap/ProMED-mail map can be accessed at:

<http://healthmap.org/promed/p/6>.]