Tarrant County Resident Who Visited Miami Contracts Zika
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TARRANT COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM/AP) – A first for Tarrant County.
Tarrant County Public Health has identified a new Zika case involving a Tarrant County resident who traveled to Miami.
This is the second case reported in Texas that involved travel to an affected area of Florida.
The Texas Department of State Health Services received, tested and confirmed the sample.
Local transmission has not been detected in Tarrant County and surveillance continues.
To date, there have been 22 reported travel associated cases. Twenty one cases traveled outside the continental U.S. to Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Honduras (3), Jamaica (2), Mexico (2), Nicaragua, Puerto Rico (4), St. Lucia (2), St. Martin and two unknown. One case traveled domestically to Florida.
Meantime in Miami, health authorities are declaring a win against Zika in the city's Wynwood Arts District. Now their emphasis shifts to the remaining transmission zone on nearby Miami Beach, where residents have objected to the aerial pesticide spraying crediting with halting infections.
No new cases of Zika have been reported in Wynwood since early August, and on Monday health officials declared it to be no longer a zone of active local transmission.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lifted a warning for pregnant women to stay out of Wynwood altogether, but continued to caution them about traveling to the city and surrounding areas out of concerns for catching the virus, which can cause serious birth defects. In nearby Miami Beach, health officials have broadened their declared zone of active local transmission.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott and CDC officials attributed the drop-off in infections in Wynwood to aggressive aerial spraying with naled, an insecticide that targets adult mosquitoes, and street-level spraying with another pesticide that kills mosquito larvae. Scott said residents and business owners who kept their properties clear of standing water also helped.
"We're doing everything we can do to educate the public and have the same success in Miami Beach as we have in Wynwood," Scott said.
Wynwood was the first place on the U.S. mainland where mosquitoes began transmitting Zika. Health officials say that over the past several weeks, mosquito control workers there have seen fewer of the insects, the main culprits in spreading the virus.
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