ORLANDO, Fla. – Gov. Rick Scott met with community leaders in Orlando on Tuesday to discuss efforts on how to prevent the spread of the Zika virus in Florida.
The roundtable discussion began at 2 p.m. at the Orange County Health Department.
There is no vaccine for the Zika virus, which is spread through infected mosquitoes and can be transmitted from a pregnant woman to the fetus. Babies born infected with the Zika virus are often born with microcephaly or other fetal brain defects, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Florida was hit particularly hard by the virus with 1,263 local and travel-related cases across the state in 2016, the Miami Herald reported. New research suggests that the Zika virus may have begun spreading in the Miami-Dade area as soon as March. A travel warning was issued in the Wynwood neighborhood on Aug. 1, then lifted Sept. 19.
Orange County had 167 travel-related Zika cases in 2016, which is more than any other county except Miami-Dade at 350 and Broward at 182, according to the Florida Department of Health.
So far there have been 50 travel-related cases of the Zika virus in Florida in 2017, three of which were reported in Orange County.