Florida DOH Investigating Possible Non-Travel Zika Case In Miami-Dade

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Last month at a conference on the Zika virus in South Florida, top medical experts said it's not a matter of if the virus makes it to Florida, but when.

Tuesday evening at 6:30 p.m. the Florida Department of Health announced that it is conducting an investigation into a possible non-travel related Zika virus infection in Miami-Dade County.

But that's the extent of the information they would release.

The DOC does say that they're working closely with the CDC, and that it's very early on in their investigation.

CBS4's Tiani Jones met up with one of the leading experts on the Zika virus who says this particular case is alarming because it not only doesn't appear to be travel related but it doesn't appear to be sexually transmitted either.

"All of those things have to definitely be ruled out," said Dr. Aileen Marty, FIU Infections Disease expert. "Now with this particular case and in addition they are going to have to do a very careful determination of where the individual lives where they work and where they been playing for the last couple of weeks. We don't know the exact incubation period in other words the time from when a person's body encounters the Zika virus within and when that person manifests the disease."

Dr. Marty says if it is determined to be mosquito transmitted, those areas where the person could have come in contact with an infected mosquito will be thoroughly sprayed.

She also says that Florida has one of the best mosquito control programs and if Zika is determined to be here, this isn't the first mosquito borne disease the region has had to handle.