U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) recently wrote a letter to the director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), following the first case of locally transmitted Zika in 2017, asking the organization to prioritize Zika prevention efforts.
“The Zika outbreak isn’t over and continues to pose a serious public health threat to Floridians who are already struggling to recover from Hurricane Irma,” Nelson said in his letter to CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald.
A single case of locally transmitted Zika occurred recently in Manatee County, Florida, according to the Florida Department of Health (FDOH). A couple who recently returned from Cuba is believed to have brought the disease back to Florida.
One partner is believed to have contracted that disease while traveling and was later bitten by a mosquito in Florida. That mosquito then bit the other partner, transmitting the disease to them.
The FDOH said there is no current evidence of ongoing, active transmission of the disease, but Sen. Nelson repeated his concern about the spread of the disease.
On June 2, the CDC lifted the cautionary, yellow area designation for Miami-Dade County after more than three mosquito incubation periods passed with no additional confirmed or suspected locally transmitted cases.
“While there is currently no active transmission in Florida, we remain vigilant and look to our researchers’ findings to prevent this virus and its potentially devastating effects on infants,” Celeste Phillip, state surgeon general and secretary of health, said.