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For Every One Zika Diagnosis, There Are Likely 10 More Undiagnosed Says CDC Director

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

Temperatures may be dropping a little in Florida, but that doesn’t mean the Zika virus is going away anytime soon, according to Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Here’s the plain truth,” Frieden told an audience at The Atlantic magazine’s CityLab conference in Miami. “Zika and other diseases spread by Aedes aegypti are really not controllable with current technology. So we will see this become endemic in this hemisphere.”

Frieden sat down with Health News Florida in an empty conference room after his talk to discuss this emerging infectious disease. He talked about changing travel recommendations, lessons learned from Florida’s experience, and the estimate that for every one Zika diagnosis, there are probably 10 undiagnosed cases.

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Sammy Mack
Public radio. Public health. Public policy.