Victoria Suarez says her three-month-old daughter Wyvie got a clean bill of health at the doctor Tuesday. But Suarez says Zika worried her throughout her pregnancy.
“She’s gorgeous and healthy, and I’m happy about it,” said Suarez.
- Health officials confirmed Pinellas County local Zika case
- Case likely not contracted in Pinellas itself
- Seminole County considers what to do if a local case is found
Suarez said while she was pregnant, she worried about getting infected with the virus.
“And they were saying it’s so easily contracted, the mosquito bites you and then you have it, and I was really worried about that,” said Suarez.
In Seminole County, where Suarez lives, there are still no locally-transmitted cases of Zika confirmed, but there have been more than a dozen travel-related cases documented.
When Seminole County Emergency Management Director Alan Harris heard about the Pinellas County case on Tuesday, he says he went right into meetings with his staff to come up with steps they could take if a case of locally-transmitted Zika pops up in the county.
He says one of the things they may have to do is shutdown outdoor activities like at parks and athletic fields if they’re in an area of positive local transmission.
Health departments in every county in Florida now offer free Zika testing to pregnant women.
Suarez says she was not able to get tested when she was pregnant with her daughter, but if she gets pregnant again, she will definitely get tested, especially with the risk getting closer to home.
“That’s really scary because it’s getting closer and closer to Central Florida,” said Suarez.