Zika to impact Summer travel to Fla?

atricks said:

This is no longer true http://www.orlandosentinel.com/health/os-zika-update-central-florida-20160205-story.html

Confirmed case in Osceola (aka same county Disney's Animal Kingdom is in) It's also imported from "another country". If it grows larger I can see it affecting Brazilian tourists, but still too soon to sell.

Click to expand...

Heard that later this afternoon after I had posted.

atricks said:

This is no longer true http://www.orlandosentinel.com/health/os-zika-update-central-florida-20160205-story.html

Confirmed case in Osceola (aka same county Disney's Animal Kingdom is in) It's also imported from "another country". If it grows larger I can see it affecting Brazilian tourists, but still too soon to sell.

Click to expand...

But this is still nothing to cause concern. The case was travel related, not transmitted in the county.

It is too early to tell, and we'll have to see what the various researchers are able to come up with. The complications of this disease are still poorly understood. Right now even the microcephaly only has a coincidental connection. I know that several labs are working on a vaccine. Who knows how long that might take. And mosquito eradication programs are never 100% effective.

I know Flightless Duck was being facetious, but the panic over Zika is starting to remind me of the same panic over Ebola a year or so ago. And the flu panic the year before that. Just today I read about some woman who was afraid her DD would get it off a public toilet. The resulting eye roll almost toppled me out of my chair.

IF Zika becomes active in Florida, it may well have an impact on tourism. Mainly from women who are pregnant or likely to become pregnant. And, of course, their immediate families. I'm not sure what percentage of all tourists this would be. Much higher amongst theme park visitors, I would imagine.

We live in South Florida (literally one county north of where a case was just discovered). We aren't worried.

Well, it did raise my eyebrows when I saw Santa Rosa listed on the news!!!
Love those NW Florida beaches.

That being said, we are going to Cancun this Spring.
None of us has to worry about being pregnant. Hopefully out on Cancun on that beach with the incessant wind, mosquitos will not be an issue.
Methinks we will stay close to the beach at the resort, and soak ourselves in DEET at all other times!

One area of tourism that it has definitely affected is the so-called "babymoon" sector, but most people in the industry think that that will be about it.

If you think about it, this situation is pretty much exactly the same situation as Rubella (German measles) was once upon a time. I happen to be allergic to the Rubella vaccine, and my doctors went nuts about travel warnings whenever I was pregnant, because unlike most US women, I'm not immune -- but it has never been an issue at any other time in my life. Zika is a teratogenic pathogen, but otherwise is a fairly mild little short-lived disease, just like Rubella.

Now that the teratogenic effect evidence is solid, Zika will be fast-tracked for vaccine development, and I predict that females will be routinely vaccinated for it in childhood before 10 years have passed. (There will be political pressure to fund it, because as happened with Rubella, epidemic incidence of teratogenic disease will increase a nation's abortion rate. We all know what a political hot-button that is in the US, so lawmakers will find the money to try to head off that happening.)

I posted about this in Disney-Family by mistake. I meant to post here.

Doctors last week met to discuss advising women in Zika prone states not to get pregnant during mosquito months. They are mainly talking about Gulf states, but I've seen maps that have that mosquito ranging all the way up the East Coast and NYC.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/health/zika-virus-pregnancy-delay-birth-defects-cdc.html?_r=0