Zika Response Spreads North and West in US

The presence of the Zika virus is not concentrated in Florida, although the state has more confirmed cases than any other, and the number of infected people is growing rapidly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are comparatively large numbers of infected people (although small in relation to total populations) in Illinois, New York, Indiana and Connecticut.

As CDC data show, almost all of these cases are due to travel. The data cover a year and a half:

CDC Arboviral Disease Branch includes provisional data reported to ArboNET for January 01, 2015 – July 27, 2016.

As for the results in the United States:

Locally acquired mosquito-borne cases reported: 0
Travel-associated cases reported: 1,657
Laboratory acquired cases reported:  1
Total: 1,658
Sexually transmitted: 15
Guillain-Barré syndrome: 5

The worry is substantial enough that Connecticut has just requested $577,095 from the federal government. Governor Dan Malloy said:

Here in Connecticut, we’ve actively been taking steps to prepare for Zika, including a coordinated, cross-functional response across agencies. Preparation is critical, and this federal grant will be a big step forward in helping us reach our goals. That being said, it is still very critical that Congress approve a federal Zika aid package as quickly as possible. The members of Connecticut’s Congressional delegation have been ardent supporters of a bipartisan agreement for additional federal funding, and the recent outbreaks in certain parts of the country should be a wake-up call that action is needed now.

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The infection figure in the state is very small, but the alarm great enough to show that, thousands of miles from central Florida, governments have started to prepare for what they think will be the worst.

New York has implemented its own six-step action plan that includes, among other things:

100,000 starter kits of mosquito dunks (larvicide tablets) are being distributed to residents & business owners to use in water in containers that cannot be emptied on their property and to municipalities to support the initiation of local mosquito control days.

The largest state in the nation has its own very detailed plan, the “California Zika Response Activities and Resources” plan.

State to state, preparations are similar. Even if the number of cases in the United States only numbers in the thousands, eventually the government is out in force.

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