I am pummeled, both in my personal email and my work email with attorneys and safety organizations (I run the worker's comp desk) and healthcare organizations and the like... all giving me the CDC guidelines.
Why? I'm within 250 miles of Dade and Broward counties the area of first incursion for Zika.
This map is close to accurate in demonstrating the areas where the Aedes aegypti mosquito is known in the U.S.
You will probably not have to worry above the far southeast and outside of Arizona in the west.
We are likely to see some action on Florida's west coast. I'm risk adverse in my job, so my early emails asking us to think about purchasing mosquito repellant for our employees outdoors (home health and home hospice... 80% of our employee population)to get them to start taking precautions BEFORE the virus spreads west...they've pretty much fallen on deaf ears. I have three pregnant moms on my leave of absence slate this summer. I'm worried for them, too.
I haven't seen the pesky Aedes aegypti...but I've been in Florida a long time. I'm not like the transplants from the last five years who still get a kick out of spending their summers outdoors. I limit my time out, spend a lot of time in, in the cool, and use the months of November-March for my outdoor activities. I stay away from the lakes and standing water and don't hang out near the sluice behind my house. I have no mosquito bites at all this year. Let's hope it stays that way.But if you do want to lay some odds, I have the week of August 30th in the office pool for when Zika arrives in Hillsborough county. Just send me your bets and I'll make the pool bigger. Prize is a mobile mosquito netting poncho ...very fetching.
quid
