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Friday, July 29, 2016

Zika in the Wild in the U.S.

The Florida governor has confirmed that there are 4 cases of Zika in Miami that were apparently the result of transmission from mosquitoes. According to the article, "three men and one woman have been infected all within a one-mile radius in northern Miami." No Zika infected mosquitoes have been located, but authorities believe the four were infected by the insects because "none of the four patients under investigation had traveled to a Zika-infected region, nor had they had sex with a Zika-infected patient." I would note, however, that a recent case of transmission in Utah was apparently not due to sex or mosquitoes, suggesting that it could be transmitted through other bodily fluids or by air trasmission.

In the latter instance, "[t]ests have already shown that the deceased elderly patient had 'uniquely high amounts of virus' in the bloodstream, according to a CDC statement. The level of virus was more than 100,000 times higher than seen in other samples of infected people, according to the CDC."

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