Two more possible non-travel-related cases of Zika virus are being investigated in South Florida, the Florida Department of Health confirmed Wednesday.
The new cases are in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, the same areas where the health officials began investigating two similar cases last week. The health department began going door-to-door in the area where the cases were found to determine if anyone else is infected. Officials are also collecting mosquitoes in the area for testing.
Zika prevention kits are being given out at OB-GYN offices and at local health department offices in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
The health department began investigating what could be the first case of non-travel-related Zika on July 19 in Miami-Dade County. Two days later, it began investigating a second case in Broward County.
There has been no confirmation whether those cases were actually the first cases of the virus transmitted by mosquitoes in the United States. However, travel was ruled out as a possible source, Florida Surgeon General Celeste Philip said Tuesday, according to the Miami Herald.
The health department announced 17 new travel-related cases of Zika on Wednesday: three in Palm Beach, two in Brevard, two in Broward, two in Orange, one in Escambia, one in Osceola, one in Polk and one in Seminole. Four of those cases involve pregnant women, and officials don't say where the pregnant cases are located.
There have now been more than 380 confirmed cases of Zika virus in Florida. Orange County has the third highest rate of travel-related cases, after Miami-Dade and Broward.
