Zika virus is here to stay. Here's how California is preparing for that new reality stat : Los Angeles Times

Though no one has contracted Zika virus from a mosquito in California, hundreds of residents have been infected in other countries and then returned to the state. The ones Farned brought to this recent meeting in El Monte were Aedes mosquitoes — the kind that spread Zika virus, the disease discovered last year to cause birth defects. Farned has enlisted the help of the Buddhist organization Tzu Chi to try to spread the word about Aedes mosquitoes in the region. The disease is transmitted only by Aedes mosquitoes, which aren't native to the Americas. All it would take for the disease to start spreading here is for an Aedes mosquito to bite an infected traveler and then another person, experts say.




If the disease gets established in monkeys or other wild primates, the animals may serve as reservoirs for future human outbreaks. But "spillback" of Zika virus into monkeys in South America could be just as dangerous. In areas where Zika infections are prevalent among humans and mosquitoes are abundant, the virus may be transmitted to wild primates, disease ecologist Barbara Han said February 6 at the American Society for Microbiology Biothreats meeting. "The possibility for close contact with humans is already there," Han said. Two contenders on her list of at-risk species — black-striped capuchin monkeys and common marmosets — had been found by other researchers to be infected with Zika viruses matching the human strain in Brazil.


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