Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
The Tiny Patch Of Land In Miami That's A Zika Hot Zone
The New York Times: A 500-Square-Foot Area In Miami Is Ground Zero For The Zika Virus
Around July 4, a patient entered an emergency room in Miami-Dade County with a fever, a rash and joint pain — three of the four classic symptoms of the Zika virus. By this point, there had already been about 1,600 other Zika cases in the continental United States, but it soon became clear that this one was different. All the other patients had either traveled to Latin America or the Caribbean, where Zika had been raging for months — or they had sex or close contact with someone who had been there. Not this patient. (Belluck, 8/8)
The Washington Post: Why The Zika Travel Warning In Florida Is So Narrow. And What It Means For Rest Of U.S.
A one-square-mile area north of downtown Miami, marked by three streets and a highway, is a Zika hot zone that public health officials say pregnant women should avoid. Many people don't understand how those boundaries were picked as part of an unprecedented travel advisory from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And they want to know why the advisory isn’t broader. “We’ve been asked, ‘Why not all of Miami?’” CDC Director Tom Frieden said during a visit there last week. The answer, at least for now: "There’s no evidence that there’s any Zika spreading anywhere else in Miami.” (Sun, 8/8)
The Wall Street Journal: Investigators Study New Zika Case In Palm Beach County
The first Zika outbreak in the continental U.S. has spread to a third Florida county, the governor said on Monday, as health officials launched an investigation into a new case. But officials believe active transmission of the virus remains confined to the square-mile Wynwood neighborhood of Miami where the outbreak was first identified. Gov. Rick Scott said state Department of Health officials are investigating how an individual in Palm Beach County became the state’s 17th person believed to be infected without exposure from travel outside the U.S. to areas where Zika is circulating. (Evans, 8/8)
The Hill: Florida Investigating First Local Zika Case Outside Of Miami
Florida health officials are investigating another new case of the Zika virus, marking the 16th person believed to have contracted the disease from mosquitoes in two weeks. The newest case was reported in Palm Beach County, though health officials believe the person was infected during a recent trip to Miami-Dade County, according to a statement from Florida’s Department of Health on Monday. (Ferris, 8/8)
The Wall Street Journal: Zika Weighs On Businesses In A Miami Neighborhood
Michael Perez, owner of Gallery 212 in the heart of Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, decided to shut down his gallery last week after health officials announced days earlier that the area was home to the continental U.S.’s first known cases of Zika virus transmitted by mosquitoes. “It’s pretty scary for me as a business owner,” he said, sitting in his contemporary gallery in front of a glass mosaic recreation of a Claude Monet painting. Nearby, repellent sat on a desk, and a large fan hummed to drive away insects. Foot traffic had dropped; Mr. Perez worried about contracting the illness himself and later decamped to Tampa, where he remained as of Monday. (McWhirter and Evans, 8/8)
Reuters: Cool Temperatures, Few Mosquitoes Make Games Zika-Free, So Far
So far, at the Olympics many feared would be the Zika Games, so good. With as many as one million people expected to attend the spectacle, half of them foreigners, Rio de Janeiro has not turned out to be the Zika hothouse some athletes and visitors feared as the virus wreaked havoc in Brazil earlier this year. Despite some hot days, swings back to cooler temperatures in Brazil's winter mean that the population of the mosquito responsible for spreading the virus has dwindled. (8/8)
Stat: In Race For A Zika Vaccine, Big Drug Makers Sit On The Sidelines
About a year ago, before the Zika virus grabbed global attention, there were zero vaccines for it in development. Today, according to the World Health Organization, there are 30. Some of the work has been astonishingly quick. Human trials for two experimental vaccines have already begun. But a vaccine is likely still several years off, and there are indications the wait could be lengthened by a complication that has little to do with the science of vaccine development: The world’s top-tier pharmaceutical companies are largely hanging back, reluctant to get into the race for a vaccine. (Branswell, 8/8)
The Dallas Morning News: Harris County Judge: Texas Giveaway Of Mosquito Repellent To Poor Girls, Women Is Too Cumbersome
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett says the state's effort to distribute free mosquito repellent to low-income girls and women of child-bearing age, to protect them from Zika virus, is too cumbersome. Starting Tuesday and running through Oct. 31, Texas Medicaid, the state Children's Health Insurance Program and some other government-paid women's health and family planning programs are providing women ages 10 to 45 and those who are pregnant with two cans of mosquito repellent a month. (Garrett, 8/8)
