As spring turns to summer and mosquito season revs up, here in the Greater Hartford area we need to up our prevention game against the might mosquito. Will  Zika be a threat in Hartford ? As we know, here in Connecticut we face a double whammy: the possibilities of spreading both the Zika and West Nile Virus over the summer months.

Why should we be concerned about Zika in Connecticut?

There are 2 reasons:

1. Although the  Aedes Aegypti mosquito- the Zika carrying mosquito- had originally only been found in Brazil and other warm climates throughout South and Central American countries, the latest reports from the CDC is that since 2015, these mosquitos have been migrating northward and are expected to  travel further northwards into North America as summer progresses. Why? Many scientists believe that global warming has produced more of the moist, warmer breeding ground these “sip feeders”,  insects that survive taking small amounts of blood from people, thrive on, and are now migrating to traditionally cooler parts of the world.
2. The second and more concerning threat, up until this date, has been that of people, especially pregnant women, traveling back and forth from Zika affected countries, returning to Connecticut with the Zika virus, and passing it on here, as it is highly transmittable. In the Hartford area there is a large population of people of Puerto Rican descent who travel back and forth from the island, especially once school lets out in just a few weeks.