UPDATE: There are now four confirmed Zika cases in New Providence - see full story HERE.

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE five additional reported cases of the Zika virus in Florida on Friday “raises the bar” on how the Bahamas government will have to combat the feared virus, Health Minister Dr Perry Gomez said yesterday.

Dr Gomez told The Tribune officials now have to work harder to eliminate breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Despite questions from The Tribune, Dr Gomez would not say if The Bahamas has recorded another confirmed case of the virus; however, he said there would be a press conference today at 10am at the Ministry of Health on the matter.

His statements come after Florida Governor Rick Scott announced on Friday that five locally transmitted cases of the Zika virus have been confirmed in an area of Miami Beach. Three of those individuals were visitors to the area when they contracted the virus, according to international reports.

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), subsequently issued a travel advisory Friday afternoon, stating that pregnant women should avoid any part of Miami-Dade County altogether due to the newly confirmed cases. The CDC also said that pregnant women, as well as their sexual partners, who live in the area or need to travel there should make extra efforts to avoid mosquito bites, including wearing repellant.

Friday’s developments in Miami Beach reportedly brings the total number of locally transmitted cases in Florida to 36, inclusive of those reported in Miami’s Wynwood neighbourhood.

“That raises the bar,” Dr Gomez told The Tribune yesterday. “The CDC has declared Miami Beach a Zika zone. And so that’s from the highest source you can get. So anybody going over there should be very careful, with all the precautions.

“That’s unfortunate, but that’s the way it is.”

When asked if the government will seek to heighten its efforts to combat the proliferation of the virus in the country, Dr Gomez said: “We’re doing a lot of stuff now, in the processing of people, in the follow up of patients, and so on. And there’s been a lot done from environmental health; we have to do more with getting these harbingers of water in your yard to keep the mosquito down.”

Earlier this month, Dr Gomez announced the first confirmed case of the Zika virus in the Bahamas, after a Bahamian man who recently travelled to Jamaica fell ill. Dr Gomez said the man’s symptoms included rash, fever, joint pains, and headache for which he sought medical care at a private medical facility.

Dr Gomez said a sample was taken for testing and sent to a reference laboratory. A confirmed positive result was received on Tuesday, August 9. The patient - who is from Pinewood Gardens - has been treated for associated symptoms and is recovering, Dr Gomez said at the time.

He added that heightened surveillance activities continue by the Department of Environmental Health Services and that the required public health and environmental protocols continue to be conducted.

According to health officials, Zika is a mosquito-borne disease and may also be sexually transmitted. The virus is transmitted primarily by the bite of an infected Aedes aegypti mosquito, the same mosquito that transmits dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever viruses.

International health officials have long warned women who are pregnant or intend to get pregnant that they should guard against Zika. This is because of the confirmed association between infection in pregnancy and birth defects such as microcephaly.

According to international reports, there have been 2,260 cases of the Zika virus reported in the US as of last Wednesday.