Pest Perspectives - September/October 2016 - 19

fpma corner Updates Zika in Florida This summer, Florida became the center of a Zika virus outbreak, as the first cases of non-travel related transmissions of the disease occurred in two areas of Miami-Dade County, Broward County and Pinellas County. A travel warning was issued specifically around Miami Beach after a cluster of five infections were found, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On the next two pages, you'll find a handy resource you can share with your staff for educating customers on how they can help. As of Sept. 14, here are the Zika cases in Florida: Infection Type Travel-Related Infections of Zika Infection Count 634 Non-Travel Related Infections of Zika 70 Infections Involving Pregnant Women 84 Source: Florida Department of Health NPMA Training NPMA hosted a 3 1/2-hour Virtual Workshop webinar sponsored by Syngenta, Zoecon, Oldham, MGK and Univar, with nearly 600 www.flpma.org | www.pestperspectives.com attendees. From that, NPMA designed 30-minute online training course and a four-part webinar series that provides an overview of Zika virus, how to inform customers on protection measures, information on the biology and behavior of the mosquitoes that transmit Zika, and best strategies to manage mosquitoes and eliminate breeding locations. This is available to NPMA members only. They are downloadable on demand from my.npmapestworld.org. Researching a Vaccine In early August, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services moved $81 million in funds from other projects to continue work on developing vaccines to fight Zika. HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell said she was allocating $34 million in funding to the National Institutes of Health and $47 million to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to work on Zika vaccines. The funding, she said, was intended to keep Zika vaccine research going despite the lack of funding from U.S. lawmakers, who left for summer recess before allocating any funding to Zika research and preparedness. Zika Funding Delay Poses Increased Risk to Newborns In early September, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden said that "we are now essentially out of money" and warned that the country is "about to see a bunch of kids born with microcephaly" in the coming months. His comments came as lawmakers start to sort out a stopgap government funding bill that is being targeted to also carry long-delayed money to battle Zika. Zika can not only cause microcephaly-in which babies are born with grave brain defects-but other problems that the country will face for decades. And 671 pregnant women in the states and Washington, D.C., have the virus, leading to the birth of 17 babies with microcephaly so far. Frieden said funding delays have slowed long-term studies of the disease and production of new tests for it. Pregnant women and those trying to conceive should go to https:// www.cdc.gov/zika/pregnancy/ for extensive resources, tips, Infographics and more about protecting themselves. Pest Perspectives 19 http://my.npmapestworld.org http://www.cdc.gov/zika/pregnancy/ http://www.flpma.org http://www.pestperspectives.com

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