At a Glance

A case of Zika virus in Florida may be the first local transmission by a mosquito in the continental United States. Health officials have authorized more money in Zika funding for Florida. Workers are going door-to-door working to prevent the virus from spreading further.

After a woman in Miami-Dade County, Florida, contracted the Zika virus, health officials have begun investigating whether this is the first person directly infected by a mosquito bite in the continental United States.

Health officials said the case had no apparent connection to travel outside of the country, the Associated Press reported. More than 1,300 Zika infections have been reported in the U.S., but none of the cases involved bites from local mosquitoes. Fourteen of them were sexually transmitted, and one lab worker was stuck with a contaminated needle.

With 89 confirmed infections, Miami-Dade County has the most cases in Florida. Before the latest case, however, all of them have involved someone who traveled outside the U.S. mainland to an area with outbreaks.

A release from the White House on Wednesday stated that President Barack Obama on the phone in regards to the new Zika case. He noted that, in addition to the $2 million the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has given Florida for Zika preparedness, the agency anticipates it will grant the state $5.6 million in Zika funding.

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According to a CDC response plan, health officials would want to see more than just one unexplained case before declaring someone has been infected by a mosquito bite in the continental U.S. The plan suggests there should be two or more cases within a one-mile area involving people who don’t live together, who did not have sex with a Zika-infected person and who did not recently travel to countries with outbreaks, the AP also reported.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center infectious disease expert Dr. William Schaffner told ABC News if , it wouldn’t be a surprise.

"Everyone has said from the beginning that there will likely be introductions and then subsequent local spread that is going to be very limited," Schaffer told ABC. "This sounds as though this may be the first instance of that.”

He added that to stop any possible outbreak, the health department will ask infected patients to remain indoors so that they can’t infect other mosquitoes that might bite them, which could lead to other infections.

Health officials have begun taking precautions to keep Zika from spreading beyond isolated clusters of cases.

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Mosquito control inspectors in Miami have been going door-to-door in the area of investigation, spraying to kill mosquitoes and emptying containers of the water mosquitoes need to breed, according to the AP.

“We're constantly in the area,” Miami-Dade County Solid Waste Management spokeswoman Gayle Love told the AP. “We're doing hand-held spraying, and we'll do more truck spraying.”

In most people, Zika causes only a mild and brief illness, but it can provoke fetal death and severe brain defects in the children of women infected during pregnancy. There currently is no vaccine and the main defense is to avoid mosquito bites. Zika can also spread through unprotected sex with someone who is infected.

Health officials worldwide have advised people preparing to have children not to travel to areas with a high risk of Zika, but these and other warnings have applied to countries and regions where outbreaks have spread far and wide.

It remains to be seen how many Zika infections would have to be confirmed in an area before state or federal officials issue similar warnings for parts of the U.S. mainland.

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