Pa. giving out Zika prevention kits for pregnant women
The Wolf administration is distributing free kits for pregnant women to protect against the Zika virus. The kits contain small amounts of federally approved insect repellent for skin, permethrin spray repellent for treating clothing and shoes, standing water tablets for killing mosquito larva, condoms to prevent sexual transmission of Zika, and educational materials in English and Spanish, the state Department of Health said Thursday.
The Wolf administration is distributing free kits for pregnant women to protect against the Zika virus.
The kits contain small amounts of federally approved insect repellent for skin, permethrin spray repellent for treating clothing and shoes, standing water tablets for killing mosquito larva, condoms to prevent sexual transmission of Zika, and educational materials in English and Spanish, the state Department of Health said Thursday.
They will be available in "limited quantities" to pregnant women from local health departments, community health centers, offices of the Women, Infants, and Children federal nutrition program, and nonprofit organizations that primarily serve low-income or homeless women, the state said in a news release.
The kits at this point are mainly an educational campaign, since no infections in the continental United States have been transmitted via local mosquitoes. But more than 1,300 cases have been acquired by Americans traveling in areas where mosquitoes that carry the virus are circulating, and an additional 14 via sexual transmission, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The totals include 39 cases in Pennsylvania and 50 in New Jersey. The CDC said 346 of the cases in U.S. states and 303 in American territories such as Puerto Rico, where mosquitoes are carrying the virus, involved pregnant women as of July 7.
"While Zika is spread primarily by mosquitoes that are infected with the virus, it also can spread through sexual contact with individuals who have the disease," Pennsylvania Health Secretary Karen Murphy said in the release. "Because Zika poses serious health risks for babies born to women who contracted the virus during pregnancy, the kits include health education materials and prevention tools to avoid mosquito bites and sexual transmission of the disease to pregnant women. Using the products in the Zika Prevention Kit can help protect you and your loved ones from the virus."
New Jersey is considering a similar measure, a spokesperson for the state Health Department said.
Some women who were infected during pregnancy have miscarried or given birth to babies with abnormally small heads and other serious birth defects. Some health authorities have advised women traveling in areas where the virus is circulating - much of South and Central America and the Caribbean - to postpone becoming pregnant.
The mosquito species that is mainly responsible for spreading millions of cases of the virus does not thrive in the mid-Atlantic region even in summer. But another species that is among the biggest nuisances locally, known as the Asian tiger mosquito, has been shown to be capable of transmitting Zika in laboratory settings, although in temperate regions it has been an inefficient transmitter of related viruses such as dengue.
Zika is far from the only disease carried by mosquitoes, however. The New Jersey Department of Health on Thursday confirmed the state's first human case of West Nile virus this year, in a 48-year-old Camden County man who remains hospitalized.
Pennsylvania has had one case this year, in Indiana County.
West Nile, while typically causing mild symptoms if any, is most dangerous for people who are elderly or have compromised immune systems, and can be fatal in some cases.
Zika, by contrast, almost never causes serious harm - except for pregnant women and, in rare cases, others who are stricken with a temporary paralysis known as Guillain-Barre syndrome.
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