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Cigar
05-16-2016, 01:39 PM
:rollseyes: After 3 Months, Congress Ready to Act on Obama's Zika Call (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/months-congress-ready-act-obamas-zika-call-39148219)

Congress is ready to act on President Barack Obama's long-stalled request for emergency funds to combat the Zika virus, which has been linked to serious birth defects and other major health problems.

Obama requested $1.9 billion three months ago for several purposes, including creating a vaccine for the disease, taking steps to control the mosquitoes that spread Zika and helping other countries battle the virus. House Republicans Monday released legislation to provide $622 million; the Senate is likely to endorse a $1.1 billion measure on Tuesday.

Here are things to know about Zika and the government's efforts to battle it:


THE DANGERS OF ZIKA

For adults, the Zika virus can cause relatively mild symptoms such as fever, rash and joint pain. But during pregnancy, Zika can cause a serious birth defect called microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects, as well as eye problems, hearing deficits, and impaired growth. Zika is commonly spread by mosquitoes and can also be contracted through sexual contact.

Tahuyaman
05-16-2016, 01:43 PM
Lol...

Obama is trying to save the world, but those rascally Republicans want to kill everyone. Even themselves.

Cigar
05-16-2016, 02:05 PM
Lol...

Obama is trying to save the world, but those rascally Republicans want to kill everyone. Even themselves.


Well we all know how Republicans lost their minds over Ebola :smiley_ROFLMAO:

Tahuyaman
05-16-2016, 02:35 PM
Obama saved the world then too.

Cigar
05-16-2016, 02:37 PM
Obama saved the world then too.


He sure as Hell didn't have a Piss in Panties moment like the Republicans did. :laugh:

Tahuyaman
05-16-2016, 02:45 PM
A gallant world leader.

MisterVeritis
05-16-2016, 03:20 PM
Obama wants a slush fund. Agree to fund 10K for every illegal kid from his Illegal Child Army he deports. Deporting the source of the virus will go a long ways toward eliminating its threat.

waltky
05-16-2016, 04:03 PM
Senate to consider more money to fight zika...
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US Weighs More Zika Funding
May 16, 2016 - The U.S. Congress is set this week to consider several measures to fund research into a vaccine for the deadly Zika mosquito virus and a plan to control mosquitoes that spread the disease.


The question remains, however, how much lawmakers are willing to spend to curb the virus that can cause the birth defect microcephaly, which leaves babies with small heads and deformed brains, and impairs growth. Three months ago, President Barack Obama proposed a $1.9 billion plan to develop a vaccine, control the mosquitoes and help other countries fight the virus. But his Republican opponents in Congress said that was too costly and balked at approving it. Republicans in the House of Representatives offered a $622 million proposal Monday for vaccine development and international mosquito control.


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The Senate is planning to start voting Tuesday on Obama's plan, a competing Republican alternative and a compromise measure costing $1.1 billion. Even if these measures clear the two chambers, the outlines for a final accord are not clear. To date, there have been more than 500 cases of Zika contamination in the United States, all of which so far have been associated with overseas travel. Last week, Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory in the Caribbean Sea, reported its first case of Zika-borne microcephaly.

http://www.voanews.com/content/us-weighs-more-zika-funding/3332685.html

waltky
05-18-2016, 03:24 AM
$1.1 Billion in Counter-Zika Funding Approved by Senate...
:rollseyes:
Zika Funding Clears US Senate
May 17, 2016 — The U.S. Senate approved $1.1 billion to combat the Zika virus – significantly less than the Obama administration’s $1.9 billion request, but almost double the funding being considered in the House of Representatives.


Tuesday’s 68-29 vote came after the Republican-led Senate voted down the White House’s full request, which was made in February as U.S. health officials warned that Zika could spread through large swaths of the nation.
The mosquito-borne virus can cause devastating birth defects and has been linked to a debilitating neurological disorder. “We need to better control mosquitos that carry the Zika virus. We need to raise awareness to make sure families are informed about this disease, and accelerate the development of a vaccine,” said Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington State, who co-authored the bipartisan compromise bill.

For weeks, many Republicans insisted they needed more information on how funds would be spent. Some also demanded that other programs be cut to cover the costs of fighting Zika. “Let’s deal with this threat in a fiscally-responsible way,” said Senator John Cornyn of Texas. “There is no reason to gratuitously add to the deficit and the debt.” Cornyn proposed an alternative of his own that would have siphoned funds from other disease-prevention appropriations to pay for the fight against Zika. Democrats banded together to defeat it, joined by Republican Marco Rubio.

Rubio represents Florida, the state thought to be at greatest immediate risk of a Zika outbreak. He warned that Congress would be held to account if lawmakers shortchange Zika funding and large numbers of Americans fall ill. “Why take the chance that you are going to have to go home in August and September and explain to millions of people across this country why you were low-balling our approach to it [Zika]?” Rubio asked. “Let’s do this once. Let’s get it right. Let’s ensure that we are protecting our people. Let’s deal with this now.”

The Senate-approved Zika measure faces an uncertain fate in the House of Representatives, where majority-Republicans are considering a proposal to redirect $622 million previously appropriated to fight Ebola. Those funds would be merged with more than $500 million the Obama administration is already siphoning from Ebola programs. "We're re-prioritizing existing funds to make sure that the Zika attack is fully funded,” said Republican Congressman Steve Scalise.

MORE (http://www.voanews.com/content/us-senate-tackles-zika-funding-/3333895.html)

See also:

Zika to Top World Health Assembly Agenda
May 17, 2016 — The chief of the World Health Organization (WHO) says the Zika virus and other health emergencies will top the body’s annual assembly, which meets next week in Geneva.


WHO Director-General Margaret Chan says the more that is known about the Zika virus and particularly its impact on pregnant women, the more worrisome it becomes. Zika currently is circulating in 59 countries, among them Brazil, which is hosting this year’s Summer Olympic Games. While Brazil is in the forefront of the epidemic, Dr. Chan says WHO does not support a travel ban to the Games.

Chan does, however, advise caution, especially for pregnant women who could give birth to babies with brain abnormalities if they become infected with the virus. “Pregnant women should avoid traveling to these places who are reporting local infection.… Another important point is men who travel to these countries, including to the Olympics, should they be infected when they get home, they must practice safe sex, particularly if their partners or spouse are pregnant. So, they need to use a condom for the entire duration of the pregnancy,” she said.

More money for Zika fight sought

Chan says many lessons have been learned from the Ebola epidemic in West Africa; but, in order to apply these lessons to better contain the spread of newly emerging threats, such as Zika, she says the WHO will ask the assembly for a budgetary increase of $160 million dollars for the next two years.

The WHO chief tells VOA there are many other communicable and non-communicable diseases of great concern, with 76 health issues to be considered at the assembly. The meeting is expected to be the biggest ever, with some 3,100 delegates from the WHO’s 194 member countries in attendance. One of the biggest concerns, she says, remains that of maternal mortality. “We still see close to 300,000 women die unnecessarily giving birth…. In poor countries, about [a] one in 60 chance of a woman dying from giving birth - one in 60 - in wealthy countries, one in 4,900. This is [a] huge inequity,” she said. Chan says sexual reproductive health must be made accessible to young people so they have the ability to make the sexual and family planning choices that are right for them.

http://www.voanews.com/content/world-health-organization-assembly-zika/3333976.html

waltky
05-27-2016, 02:45 PM
Move Olympics over Zika, scientists say...
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Zika crisis: Rio Olympics 'should be moved or postponed'
Fri, 27 May 2016 - More than 100 leading scientists say the Rio Olympics should be moved or postponed due to the Zika outbreak, in a letter to the World Health Organization.


The group says new findings about the virus make it "unethical" for the games to go ahead in an open letter to the World Health Organization. They call on the WHO to urgently revise its guidelines on Zika, which is linked to serious birth defects. The International Olympic Committee said in May it sees no reason to delay or move the games due to Zika. The outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease began in Brazil a year ago, but now more than 60 countries and territories have continuing transmission. Zika's symptoms are mild, but in the letter the experts say it causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads and may also cause a rare and sometimes fatal neurological syndrome in adults.


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The Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro overlooks the Maracana Stadium

The letter is signed by 150 international scientists, doctors and medical ethicists from such institutions as Oxford University and Harvard and Yale universities in the United States. They cite the the failure of a mosquito-eradication programme in Brazil, and the country's "weakened" health system as reasons to postpone or move the Olympics in "the name of public health". "An unnecessary risk is posed when 500,000 foreign tourists from all countries attend the Games, potentially acquire that strain, and return home to places where it can become endemic," the letter says. The biggest risk, it adds, is if athletes contracted the virus and returned home to poor countries that had not yet suffered a Zika outbreak.

The Rio Olympics take place between 5-21 August. The WHO, which has declared the Zika virus a global public health emergency, is yet to comment on the letter. On Thursday, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose advice is quoted approvingly in the letter, said the threat did not warrant halting the games. "There is no public health reason to cancel or delay the Olympics," Dr Tom Frieden said. But he also urged the US to act more quickly to prevent pregnant women contracting Zika, amid congressional deadlock over the release of $1.9bn (£1.3bn) in funding.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-36401150

waltky
05-28-2016, 09:35 PM
WHO rejects call to postpone Rio Olympics...
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UN health agency rejects call to postpone Rio Olympics
May 28,`16 -- The World Health Organization on Saturday rejected a call from 150 health experts to consider postponing or moving the Rio Summer Olympics due to the Zika virus in hard-hit Brazil, arguing that the shift would make no significant difference to the spread of the virus.


The U.N. health agency, which declared the spread of Zika in the Americas a global emergency in February, said in a statement there is "no public health justification" for postponing or canceling the 2016 games, which run from Aug. 5-21. Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world are expected to travel to Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian destinations this summer to see some 10,000 athletes compete at the games.

In an open letter to the WHO director-general released Friday, experts from over two dozen countries in fields including public health, bioethics and pediatrics - among them former White House science adviser Dr. Philip Rubin - called for the Rio games to be delayed or relocated, though not canceled, "in the name of public health." Friday's letter cited recent scientific evidence that the Zika virus causes severe birth defects , most notably babies born with abnormally small heads. In adults, it can cause neurological problems, including a rare syndrome that can be fatal or result in temporary paralysis. The authors also noted that despite increased efforts to wipe out the mosquitoes that spread Zika, the number of infections in Rio de Janeiro have gone up rather than down.


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Health workers get ready to spray insecticide to combat the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that transmits the Zika virus, under the bleachers of the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, which will be used for the Archery competition in the 2016 summer games. More than 145 public health experts signed an open letter to the World Health Organization on Friday, May 27, 2016 asking the U.N. health agency to consider whether the Rio de Janeiro Olympics should be postponed or moved because of the ongoing Zika outbreak. The letter calls for the games to be delayed or relocated “in the name of public health.”

Several public health academics have previously warned that having so many people travel to the games in Brazil will inevitably lead to the births of more brain-damaged babies and speed up the virus' global spread. WHO, however, said "based on current assessment, cancelling or changing the location of the 2016 Olympics will not significantly alter the international spread of Zika virus." It argued that Brazil is only one of dozens of countries where mosquitoes transmit the Zika virus and says "people continue to travel between these countries and territories for a variety of reasons." "Based on the current assessment of the Zika virus circulating in almost 60 countries globally and 39 in the Americas, there is no public health justification for postponing or cancelling the games," it said. "WHO will continue to monitor the situation and update our advice as necessary."

The agency noted its existing advice urging pregnant women not to travel to areas with Zika transmission, among other recommendations, and says other travelers should avoid the poor, overcrowded parts of Rio. One of the letter's authors wasn't impressed by the U.N. agency's arguments. "The WHO's response is absolutely fanciful," said Amir Attaran, a professor at the University of Ottawa and one of the letter's authors. He called WHO's argument that Zika is already being transmitted by mosquitoes in up to 60 countries "a scientific half-truth." "They're avoiding the question of 'Is it Brazilian Zika in other countries?'" he said. Friday's letter pointed to the particularly high risks from the Zika virus strain seen in Brazil, which has by far the most Zika cases in the world and the most brain-damaged Zika babies.

MORE (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OLY_ZIKA_CALL_TO_POSTPONE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-05-28-15-49-42)

waltky
06-16-2016, 11:24 PM
Granny got her trusty ol' poof-can o' DDT she zaps mosquitoes dat come `round here with...
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Mosquito Control Expert: Congress Should Ease Pesticide Regulation to Target Pesticide Resistant, Zika-Carrying Mosquitoes
June 16, 2016 | – T. Wayne Gale, president-elect of the American Mosquito Control Association and executive director of the Lee County Mosquito Control District in Florida, told Congress Wednesday that there may be a pesticide resistance issue in Zika-carrying mosquitoes.


Gale told Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) in a Capitol Hill briefing that addressed the possible spread of the Zika virus in Florida that an adequate response to the threat of the Zika virus “amounts to having personnel, pesticides, and equipment.” “Do we have that?” Hastings asked. “No, not statewide,” Gale said, adding “that right now is the focus of the money that is being provided by the health department in Florida is for personnel, pesticides, and equipment.” “These mosquitoes are very difficult to control, and we’re finding right now that we might have a resistance issue to the pesticides we use,” he later added. “There’s research going on right now to determine the extent of that.”

Gale told CNSNews.com that any legislation to streamline the approval process for pesticides “and make it less expensive, or at least provide some funding to help move new public health pesticides through, would be an important step in trying to get new materials and deal with the resistance issue.” CNSNews.com asked Gale what pesticides have proven effective in combatting the Aedes Aegypti and the Aedes Albopictus, Zika-carrying mosquitoes, and about Florida’s plan in dealing with pesticide resistance with the tools they have available. “Right now, we have two basic classes of compounds. What we call OPs or Organophosphates, Naled and Malathion, are probably the two primary that are used in public health pest control, and then the rest, most of the rest of the adult control materials are Synthetic Pyrethroids,” Gale explained. “That’s where we’re seeing - you know, spotty resistance, localized resistance in a lot of areas - and so there aren’t a whole lot of alternatives, so it’s a difficult problem.”

CNSNews.com asked Gale about the Zika Vector Control Act, formerly the Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act, which did not move forward when it was brought up for a vote in the House in May. The legislation was backed by the American Mosquito Control Association and aimed to ease regulation on pesticide development to combat Zika carrying mosquitoes. “The development process and the registration process for pesticides is very expensive, and it’s the federal government’s process that makes it so,” Gale said, “and so any legislation to kind of streamline that process and make it less expensive or at least provide some funding to help move new public health pesticides through would be an important step in trying to get new materials and deal with the resistance issue.”

Gale also told CNSNews.com that to his knowledge, Florida’s Department of Health only had about $400,000 to distribute to mosquito control efforts. “There’s funding that’s coming to the states from CDC. It’s through what they call ELC grants, which is Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity Grants, and that money comes to the state health department, and the state health department distributes that money,” he explained.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/lauretta-brown/mosquito-control-expert-congress-should-ease-pesticide-regulation-target

waltky
06-28-2016, 02:23 PM
Deadlock on Capitol Hill for zika funds...
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U.S. lawmakers deadlock on Zika virus funds
June 28, 2016WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers deadlocked over funding to fight the Zika virus on Tuesday, as Senate Democrats blocked a Republican proposal they said fell short of the challenge posed by the mosquito-borne virus and hurt other health priorities.


Amid political recriminations by both parties, the Republican plan to provide $1.1 billion in funding to combat Zika, which had already passed the House of Representatives, failed to get the 60 votes needed in the Senate to clear a procedural hurdle. The vote was 52 in favor and 48 against on a mostly party-line vote. It was unclear when Congress would revisit the issue. Democrats urged bipartisan talks, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, said lawmakers would address the matter again sometime after the July 4 national holiday next week.

Both sides warned the other that there could be a political price to pay in an election year for stalling on Zika funding, with the summer mosquito season under way and with it the threat of the virus spreading. "Here we are, in an utterly absurd position, playing political games as this public health crisis mounts here in our country," McConnell said. The Zika virus, which has swept through the Americas and Caribbean since last fall, has been linked to thousands of cases of microcephaly, a rare birth defect, in Brazil, as well as to neurological disorders. It has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization.


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There have not yet been any cases reported of local transmission of the Zika virus in the continental United States, but there have been 820 cases that were acquired from travel to areas with active Zika outbreaks, or through sexual transmission. There have been more than 1,800 cases of Zika infection reported in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory in the Caribbean. Health experts expect local transmission to occur in the continental United States with warmer weather. Democrats have been urging Republicans for months to agree to Zika funding. The Republican plan would have funded mosquito control efforts by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, as well as vaccine research by the National Institutes of Health, and money for community health centers in areas that are experiencing the highest rates of Zika transmission.

But Democrats complained that Republicans locked them out of drafting the $1.1 billion funding plan, which would have made $750 million in budget cuts elsewhere. The Republican plan, rushed through the House last week, would have taken money from battling the Ebola virus as well as from funds set aside for implementing the Obamacare health insurance program in U.S. territories. The Senate last month agreed to a bipartisan bill allocating the same amount - $1.1 billion - to fight Zika, but without cutting any other programs.

DISPUTE OVER PLANNED PARENTHOOD (https://www.yahoo.com/news/lawmakers-deadlock-agreeing-funds-fight-zika-virus-172335172.html?ref=gs)

Cigar
06-28-2016, 02:26 PM
Get Everyone of of these ...

I have in the Back Yard and one small one in The Garage ... works like a charm

http://images.qvc.com/is/image/f/62/f11762.001?$uspdlarge$ (http://www.qvc.com/Dynatrap-1-Acre-Coverage-Insect-Trap-w-2-Extra-Bulbs.product.F11762.html)

Tahuyaman
06-28-2016, 02:55 PM
I'm waiting for some partisan hack to claim that Obama had discovered a way to make the world a perfect place, but Republicans blocked it.

waltky
07-10-2016, 12:35 AM
First zika fatality in continental US...
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1st death related to Zika virus seen in continental US
July 8, 2016 — A person infected with Zika has died in Utah, and while the exact cause is unclear, authorities said Friday it marks the first death related to the virus in the continental U.S.


The unidentified Salt Lake County resident contracted the virus while traveling abroad to an area with a Zika outbreak, health officials said. The patient who died in late June was elderly and also suffered from another health condition, according to the Salt Lake County Health Department. The person had Zika symptoms — including rash, fever and conjunctivitis — but it's unclear if or how the virus contributed to the death, said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman Benjamin Haynes.

Officials discovered the case while reviewing death certificates, and lab tests confirmed their suspicions, said Gary Edwards, executive director of the Salt Lake County Health Department. Utah authorities refused to release additional information about the patient or where he or she traveled, citing health privacy laws. The virus causes only a mild illness in most people. But during recent outbreaks in Latin America, scientists discovered that infection during pregnancy has led to severe brain-related birth defects. It's spread mainly through the bite of a tropical mosquito.

No cases of locally transmitted, mosquito-borne Zika have been reported in the continental United States, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But a 70-year-old man from the San Juan metro area in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico died in late February. Officials said he recovered from initial Zika symptoms, but then developed a condition in which antibodies that formed in reaction to the Zika infection started attacking blood platelet cells. He died after suffering internal bleeding.

More than 1,100 Zika illnesses have been reported in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, including six in Salt Lake County, according to health officials. Almost all were people who had traveled to Zika outbreak countries and caught the virus there. But 14 were people who had not traveled to Zika zones but had sex with someone who had. The CDC has also been tracking pregnant women infected with Zika, and says they have five reports of pregnancy losses because of miscarriage, stillbirth or abortion.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/1st-death-related-zika-virus-seen-continental-us

Tahuyaman
07-10-2016, 01:33 AM
First zika fatality in continental US...
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1st death related to Zika virus seen in continental US
July 8, 2016 — A person infected with Zika has died in Utah, and while the exact cause is unclear, authorities said Friday it marks the first death related to the virus in the continental U.S.

Thats like saying if one smokes a joint then gets killed killed by a burglar, its a marijuana related death.

waltky
07-29-2016, 02:33 PM
Zika inna U.S....
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Mosquitoes have apparently begun spreading Zika in U.S.
Jul. 29, 2016 — Mosquitoes have apparently begun spreading the Zika virus on the U.S. mainland for the first time, Florida officials said Friday in a long-feared turn in the epidemic that is sweeping Latin America and the Caribbean.


Four recently infected people in the Miami area — one woman and three men — are believed to have caught the virus locally through mosquito bites, Gov. Rick Scott said at a news conference. No mosquitoes in Florida have actually been found to be carrying Zika, despite the testing of 19,000 by the state lab. But other methods of Zika transmission, such as travel to a stricken country or sex with an infected person, have been ruled out. U.S. health officials said they do not expect a widespread outbreak of the sort seen in Brazil and other countries. While officials have long predicted mosquitoes in the continental U.S. would begin spreading Zika this summer, they have also said they expect only isolated clusters of infections. More than 1,650 people in the mainland U.S. have been infected with Zika in recent months. But the four people in Florida are believed to be first ones to contract the virus within the 50 states from mosquitoes. "This is not just a Florida issue. It's a national issue — we just happen to be at the forefront," Scott said.


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Florida agricultural officials immediately announced more aggressive mosquito-control efforts, and Florida politicians rushed to reassure tourists that it's still safe to visit the state. Some medical experts said pregnant women should not travel to the Miami area, especially if it involves spending time outdoors. However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is not recommending people avoid visiting South Florida. The virus is so mild that most people who are infected don't even know they are sick, but infection during pregnancy can cause babies to born with disastrously small heads and other severe brain-related defects. The four Florida infections are thought to have occurred in a small area just north of downtown Miami, in the Wynwood arts district, the governor said. The area, known for bold murals spray-painted across warehouses, art galleries, restaurants and boutiques, is rapidly gentrifying and has a number of construction sites where standing water can collect and serve as a breeding ground for the tropical mosquito that carries Zika.

People in Florida's Miami-Dade and Broward counties are being tested to learn whether there are more cases, the governor said. "If I were a pregnant woman right now, I would go on the assumption that there's mosquito transmission all over the Miami area," warned Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical medicine expert at the Baylor College of Medicine. He said that while health officials have reported four infections, there are probably more that have not been diagnosed, and that people should not be surprised if mosquitoes are soon found to be spreading Zika in Louisiana and Texas as well. Earlier this week, federal authorities told blood centers in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale areas this to stop collecting blood until they screen it for the virus. Dr. Tom Frieden, the CDC director, said the evidence suggests that the mosquito-borne transmission occurred several weeks ago over several city blocks. Zika primarily spreads through bites from a specific species of tropical mosquito that can also carry other diseases, including dengue fever and chikungunya.

MORE (http://bigstory.ap.org/article/63778f53d2e34bbb8c199c859c0d797f/governor-4-zika-cases-likely-came-florida-mosquitoes)

Tahuyaman
07-29-2016, 03:35 PM
It's incredible that some people believe that no issue can ever be solved unless government gets involved.

Chances are, the more involved modern government gets, the slower a solution is discovered.