The Zika Virus has seen its first case in Palm Beach County, and health officials are now left wondering how the disease has spread its wings in Florida. There is a chance that the Zika virus in Palm Beach County has spread by local mosquitoes and not from a recent trip.
There might be a connection between the outbreak of Zika virus in Palm Beach County and the virus being taken into the locality from a recent trip to Miami, where the disease is seeing an explosion.
According to Fox News, Governor Rick Scott said that the person who has been affected by the Zika virus had traveled to Miami-Dade County. Miami is currently witnessing a massive outbreak of the Zika virus caused by local mosquitoes. Sixteen people have been affected by the Zika virus and with the case in Palm Beach County, the total count in the state has gone up to seventeen people.
While the investigation is still underway to determine how the Zika virus infected the person in Palm Beach County, the state has maintained that the active transmission of Zika virus has been confined to a square-mile area in Miami-Dade County. Florida officials have been trying to spread awareness of the Zika virus.
The virus has been seen to cause birth defects, including developmental problems and microcephaly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US has been warning pregnant women to avoid the area in and around Miami. The health department has also advised people who have traveled to Wynwood since 15th June to put off getting pregnant for a while.
With the school year coming up, Governor Scott has asked the health departments to make sure that parents, educators and students are aware of Zika virus and are capable of combating the disease. Steps have been taken to monitor the affected person and spray the area where the affected person is living to prevent the Zika virus from spreading.
Zika virus is widespread in countries located in the Caribbean and Latin America. Reports are suggesting that twenty people in Palm Beach County were affected by the Zika virus because they had traveled to these countries. While the majority of the cases have been caused because of traveling to affected areas, two of the cases from Broward County have been caused locally.
Florida officials have started taking measures to kill mosquitoes to prevent any further increase in the number of people getting affected by Zika virus. The number of affected people has been on the increase, and this has caused the U.S National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to reveal that they are preparing to launch the first phase of the clinical trial for Zika virus.
According to CBC, eighty health volunteers have been selected from Maryland and Georgia, who will receive the injection for the Zika virus vaccine. The first set of volunteers were given their first shot of Zika virus vaccine on 2nd August. Some volunteers are going to get a second shot after eight to twelve weeks, and some of them will get the third shot twenty weeks after receiving the first shot.
The volunteers who will get the Zika virus vaccine shot are going to be monitored to determine if the vaccination is safe and if it is capable of creating antibodies that have the ability to fight the disease.
Inovio Pharmaceuticals has also started testing a DNA vaccine. This vaccine is currently being tested in Canada, with the University of Laval being one of the testing grounds.