With the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issuing their first warning for Americans to avoid travel to an American neighborhood, the U.S. is on the verge of a Zika pandemic that may soon require extreme measures, including aerial pesticide spraying.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has declared an epidemic of yellow fever, affecting the densely populated capital Kinshasa and infecting a suspected thousand residents nationwide.
The responsibility for protecting our communities in Texas from the Zika virus is local and municipal, say mosquito experts. The problem is that poorer areas do not have the expertise or the manpower because of their low tax base. Texas counties without formal mosquito districts or like services are ill-equipped to address Zika virus concerns.
If Zika–or a possibly mutated strain–can also spread through sex, then it poses a risk of another HIV/Aids pandemic.
Aggressive tropical mosquitos–a breed that can carry the Zika virus–have been found in Orange County, California. The invasive species–which can also carry yellow fever, dengue fever and chinungunya–could pose a risk to the public.
The first case of Zika virus was confirmed in Los Angles County on Tuesday within days of a warning from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) that predicted the spread of the virus throughout the Americas.
California health officials are concerned over the arrival of nonnative mosquitos that are known to carry deadly diseases and that are quickly spreading across the southern part of the Golden State.
