Health officials confirm Zika virus cases in Michigan and Florida
An Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae is seen at a lab of the Ministry of Health of El Salvador in San Salvador.
Three pregnant women tested positive for the Zika virus in Florida and another woman in Michigan, health officials say.
Florida Secretary of Health John Armstrong announced the cases Wednesday in his daily Zika update. A news release says all three cases are believed to be travel-related. Officials weren’t identifying the counties where the pregnant women were diagnosed.
A total of 32 cases have now been reported in Florida. Miami-Dade County leads the state with 11 reported cases. All the cases so far have been travel-related, but the virus can be spread by bites from mosquitoes that are common in Florida.
In Michigan, an Ingham County woman contracted the virus while traveling in a country where it is transmitted and experienced symptoms consistent with the disease after returning to Michigan.
Zika virus is feared to cause severe birth defects in unborn children. The state says the Ingham County woman was not pregnant.
The virus is spread to people primarily through the bite of infected mosquitoes, and has been spreading through countries such as Brazil.
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