Zika in the US—Not Just a Florida Problem

Daniel Eiras, MD, MPH, hospital epidemiologist at NYU Langone Medical Center, discusses the prevalence of Zika virus infections in New York City.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“At this point Zika is everywhere. We think that the only place that there is local transmission through mosquitoes is in South Florida; [however], every state in the country has had travel-related cases of Zika. Because of that, every state in the country has to be prepared to take care of a patient with Zika, and particularly pregnant women.

New York [City] is a very densely populated city. We’ve seen more cases of travel-related Zika in New York City than in most states across the country. Already at this point we’ve had difficulty with resource allocation when taking care of pregnant women, in particular, in New York, and this is only going to increase.

In New York City, we’ve seen more than 600 cases of travel-related Zika. Across the United States there have been around 4000 so far. We’ve had many cases of pregnant women who’ve had Zika, and a number of cases of infants [who were] born with birth defects.”