Mosquitoes Spreading Zika Virus in Parts of U.S.: CDC

From U.S. News
March 8, 2018

THURSDAY, March 8, 2018 (HealthDay News) — Zika infections are on the rise in parts of the United States where mosquitoes spread the virus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC reported 5,168 cases of Zika-related illness in 2016.

Of those cases in 50 states and Washington, D.C., more than 90 percent were in people who had visited Zika-risk areas outside of the continental U.S., especially the Caribbean. But 224 people were infected with Zika from local mosquitoes in small areas of Florida and Texas in 2016.

The CDC reported no locally transmitted Zika cases in the United States during 2015.

The report by Dr. Victoria Hall, of the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, and colleagues was published in the March 9 issue of the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

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