Top US Health Experts Convene to Outline a Plan for Tackling Zika

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atalanta, Ga. main entrance.

USA officials say more needs to be done to control mosquito populations and prevent the Zika virus from spreading at home.

Top American health officials have convened to devise a plan for tackling the Zika virus, which is expected to reach the southern US within weeks.

However, there have been no Zika cases in the country that have been caught from mosquitoes.

The ministry's permanent secretary, Dr Meciusela Tuicakau, confirmed this yesterday, adding conjunctivitis or pinkeyes had also been listed as one of the symptoms of the mosquito-borne Zika virus.

Although the infection itself is mild, infants born to women infected during pregnancy face an increased risk of microcephaly ^[1], a congenital condition that causes an abnormally small head and brain, and brings severe, lifelong cognitive impairments.

Dr. Ettestad said he had redirected part of a grant from the CDC for Ebola to hire a graduate student who will map where Aedes mosquitoes breed in the state, information he said the state now doesn't have. As in Puerto Rico, the main focus of the US plan is to protect pregnant women from exposure to Zika-carrying mosquitoes.

This 2006 photo provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a female Aedes aegypti mosquito ^[2] in the process of acquiring a blood meal from a human host. But they don't know for sure.

But the agency says the main areas at risk of local transmission of Zika and possible outbreaks remain the same, they being Florida, the Gulf states and Hawaii.

"As of Tuesday evening, most of the cases in the continental USA have been travel associated, so there's not been any de novo infection in the continental USA that we are aware of", Levin said.

The study, detailed online in the journal Science, found the structure to be very similar to that of other flaviviruses, which includes dengue, West Nile, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis and tick-borne encephalitic viruses, with an RNA genome surrounded by a lipid, or fatty, membrane inside an icosahedral protein shell. So, cities in like Atlanta and Savannah, Zika can easily infect a large number of people.

"There are many things at this summit that will be decided, determined, and moved forward in terms of state and localities doing more", he said.

Local health officials at the summit said the work ahead is daunting, especially since it's not clear where they're going to get the money.

Valley health officials have already begun their preparations for the potential spread of Zika.

Pope said inaction by Congress is forcing health officials to make hard choices.

Cruz about even with Trump in Republican presidential race ^[3]
Sanders, however, listed the Democratic Party as his party affiliation in his statement of candidacy for his presidential run. Scott Walker's experience of three statewide wins in four years shows anything, it's that Republicans can win in Wisconsin.