HEALTH

Non-travel Zika virus case reported in Pinellas County

Arek Sarkissian

arek.sarkissian@naplesnews.com; 850-559-7620

TALLAHASSEE -- There were five new non-travel related cases of the Zika virus reported in Florida on Tuesday, one of them in Pinellas County, Gov. Rick Scott announced.

Four other cases of non-travel related to Zika were reported in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami. That was the first area where Florida Department of Health officials identified as a place where local transmissions of the virus were taking place.

FILE -- An Aedes aegypti mosquito is photographed through a microscope at the Fiocruz institute in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016. The mosquito is a vector for the proliferation of the Zika virus currently spreading throughout Latin America. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Scott said the state DOH does not believe the case in Pinellas County was not an active transmission. Active transmissions are only occurring in Wynwood and Miami Beach, which was officially identified on Friday.

“In Pinellas County, the Department of Health and the Pinellas County Mosquito Control are already working together and have begun aggressive spraying and mosquito abatement efforts,” Scott said in a news release sent from Clearwater.

The state DOH reported on Monday there were 37 non-travel related Zika cases around the state. Another 494 cases were travel related. The difference between the two classifications is where the person contracted the disease. People were previously contracting Zika while traveling to tropical areas where it is prevalent. By the end of June, the first Florida-grown cases were being reported.

There were eight travel-related Zika cases reported in Lee County as of Tuesday and there were another four in Collier County.

Zika can be transmitted by sexual contact and a certain type of mosquito more common in South Florida. Areas like Wynwood, where locally transmitted cases first appeared, have seen heavy mosquito abatement measures, and those measures have now been spread to a heavily populated stretch of Miami Beach and Pinellas County.

Scott’s official schedule has been dominated by updates on Zika preparedness around the state. He also has a Tuesday phone conference scheduled with Visit Florida that is not open to the public.

County health departments are offering free Zika tests to pregnant women. There are also free Zika preparedness kits that include bug spray, condoms and insect nets.