Mosquito-control officials: Even Zika suspicions are costly

MIAMI -- Florida mosquito-control officials worry they won't be able to keep up their efforts to contain the bugs that carry Zika without federal funding, even as concern mounts the first infection from a mosquito bite on the U.S. mainland is near.

On Thursday, fogging trucks drove through a Miami-Dade County neighborhood where health officials are investigating a Zika diagnosis that doesn't appear to have connection to travel outside the United States.

Zika usually is spread by mosquitoes, but nearly all the Zika cases in the U.S. have been contracted in other countries or through sex with someone who got it abroad.

"We want to make sure we reduce the mosquito population down to zero if possible in this case," said Chalmers Vasquez, Miami-Dade County's mosquito-control operations manager.

Vasquez's inspectors are going door-to-door, trapping mosquitoes for testing, hand-spraying and removing the standing water where they breed. Such aggressive mosquito control and surveillance are routine in Miami-Dade County, which leads Florida in confirmed Zika cases linked to travel.

The Florida Department of Health announced Thursday another Zika case potentially not related to travel was being investigated in Broward County.

While Zika's appearance in mosquitoes in the U.S. mainland is likely, health officials don't expect widespread outbreaks like those seen in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Zika is such a mild disease for most people, they don't even know they have it, but it has been found to lead to severe birth defects if a pregnant woman is infected.

The tropical mosquito that carries Zika, Aedes aegypti, likes to live near people, and it doesn't travel far.

Better building construction, more extensive use of air conditioning and window screens, wider use of bug repellent and broader mosquito-control measures will help control the spread of Zika by mosquitoes in the U.S., experts believe.

The same mosquito also has brought dengue and chikungunya to Florida and the Texas-Mexico border, but only in small clusters of cases.

Still, even suspected cases trigger costly responses, as inspectors sweep areas to eliminate their breeding sites, set traps and kill any mosquitoes they see.

"We try to get access to every backyard we can," Vasquez said.

No mosquitoes collected in Miami-Dade County so far have tested positive for Zika or other viruses carried by the same species, according to state and county officials.