2 Zika cases found in Flagler County

County's first cases of virus are travel-related, health department says

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Flagler County has its first reported cases of the Zika virus, the Florida Department of Health announced Thursday.

Two travel-related cases were reported in the county.

State health officials Thursday reported 18 additional cases of the Zika virus, with seven of the infections believed to have occurred in South Florida. There are currently 10 travel-related cases in Alachua County, three in Clay, eight in Duval, one in Nassau and four in St. Johns County.

The state now has reported 823 cases of the mosquito-borne virus, which began emerging last year in South America. Zika is particularly dangerous to pregnant women because it can cause severe birth defects.

The Florida Department of Health said on its website that the seven new locally transmitted cases brought the total of such cases to 77. 

It said three of the newly diagnosed cases are linked to an investigation in Miami Beach; two of the cases are in Miami-Dade County, with the department investigating where exposure occurred; one case involves a Palm Beach County resident who is believed to have been infected in Miami-Dade; and one case involves an out-of-state resident who is believed to have been infected in Miami-Dade.

The other 11 new cases are considered "travel-related," which means people were infected elsewhere and brought Zika into the state. Eight of the new travel-related cases were found in Miami-Dade, two were in Flagler County and one was in Lee County, the department said on its website. 

Gov. Rick Scott spent part of this week in Washington, D.C., talking with members of Congress about trying to get approval of federal money to help combat the virus.

President Barack Obama early this year proposed spending $1.9 billion on the issue, but Congress has not been able to agree on a spending plan. 

Insect expert talks Zika

Entomologist Marah Clark said there are 47 different mosquitoes in the Jacksonville area alone, and 10 of those can potentially carry disease. Two of those 10 – Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus -- can potentially carry the Zika virus.

With recent rains from Hurricane Hermine and Tropical Storm Julia, Clark is asking people to take 10 minutes to get rid of any standing water around their homes.

“These are both container-breeding mosquitoes,” Clark said. “They don't fly very far from their backyards, so after rainfall we really try to encourage our residents to go out and check their property, make sure their gutters aren't holding debris.”

It takes only a bottle cap full of water for an egg to hatch and become an adult mosquito, experts said.

Clark said the Zika-carrying types of mosquitoes have been in Northeast Florida since the 1800s, so mosquito experts have always been aware of them, but they now look at them in a different light because of Zika.

“We've always responded to these mosquitoes, so we haven't just been tracking them, but we go to do inspections, and we're looking for both of them because, again, before the virus, it was more of a pest mosquito and people would go outside, get bitten by it and complain,” Clark said.

No mosquitoes from Jacksonville have tested positive for Zika, but Clark and her team will continue studying, testing and learning more about the insects.

“These are mosquito larvae. They're moving around on the screen. This is normal activity for them to feed and move and breathe,” Clark said. “It's very much like a caterpillar in a cocoon.”

Mosquito control officials said they send pools of mosquitoes for testing about once a week. A pool contains about 50 mosquitoes and some weeks there will be just a couple of pools while other weeks, there could be more than a dozen.

Residents can see where ground crews have been treating and where they have any plan for aerial applications on the city's mosquito control website. There's also information on the types of mosquitoes in Jacksonville and their breeding sites and what residents can do to help prevent mosquitoes. 

Zika Transmitting Mosquitos Worldwide | Graphiq