On Thursday, the Florida Department of Health launched an epidemiological investigation into a possible case of Zika detected in Broward County not associated with travel. On Tuesday, the department announced a similar investigation underway in Miami-Dade County. If either are confirmed, they would be the first locally acquired cases in the U.S. and establish that Zika has infiltrated the Floridian mosquito population.
The Aedes aegypti mosquito is the primary culprit in the Zika outbreak that has disseminated across Latin America. According to NBC News, Florida is 1 of 26 states where Aedes mosquitoes have been detected. But finding infected mosquitoes to confirmation these suspected locally acquired cases can be challenging.
"It's a needle in a haystack," Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, dean of tropical medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told NBC News. "Just because they don't find Zika in an Aedes mosquito doesn't mean there is no [local] transmission."
Though preliminary evidence suggests these cases of Zika are homegrown, investigators are not ruling out other possibilities.
"We continue to investigate and have not ruled out travel or sexual transmission at this time," a spokesperson from the Florida Department of Health told NBC News.
Health officials, as they have in Miami-Dade, are making Zika prevention kits for pregnant women and mosquito repellent available for pickup at the county health department. The kits are also being distributed to local OB-GYNs. Florida health officials are collaborating with the CDC in both investigations.
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