The Florida Department of Health officials have reported a sexually-transmitted Zika virus infection in Polk County, the first in the state. Health officials write–one was sexually transmitted from an individual who was traveling outside of the country.

A second case, also in Polk County, is considered travel associated. No other details were available.

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Image/Debora Cartagena

These are the first cases reported in Polk County and as a result, the Declaration of Public Health Emergency has been expanded to include Polk County.

As of Wednesday, 52 Zika virus cases have been reported in Florida with Miami-Dade County reporting the most at 24.

As of Mar. 5, prior to these two new cases, the countries of origin were: Brazil (4), Colombia (13), Costa Rica, El Salvador (2), Haiti (9), Honduras (3), Honduras/Guatemala, Nicaragua (4), Puerto Rico (3), and Venezuela (10).

There has been no local transmission of Zika virus in Florida or in the United States.

To date, local transmission of Zika has been reported from the following countries in the Americas–Aruba, Barbados, Bolivia, Bonaire, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Martin, Sint Maarten, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago,  US Virgin Islands and Venezuela.

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