NY State Health Officials To Attend Zika Summit In Atlanta
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New York state health officials are set to attend a Zika summit at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's headquarters in Atlanta on Friday.
The CDC on Wednesday posted new maps of the estimated range of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, and a related cousin, on its website.
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Instead of just being in the southern part of the country, the maps now show the two mosquitoes reaching as far as New York City and San Francisco.
However, New York State and city health officials said the new maps are misleading.
"We've been sampling for over 15 years and have not identified this mosquito known as aedes aegypti here in New York City, but we do know we have its cousin," Hermina Palacio, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services.
Still, officials are ramping up preventative measures.
"We're going to be doing more larvacide, specifically in areas where we know this Asian tiger mosquito can breed," Palacio said.
The CDC has reported 273 cases in the U.S., with the vast majority of those coming from people who traveled to Zika-affected countries. Six cases were transmitted sexually, but so far in the U.S., there have been no reported cases of Zika transmitted through a mosquito bite.
The New York City Health Departments says it is "aggressively increasing mosquito surveillance and control, and launching a public awareness campaign about mosquito bite prevention."
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