The Tulsa City-County Health Department gets a grant from the Public Health Institute to study the mosquito that carries the Zika virus. The Division Chief for Environmental Public Health in Tulsa is Elizabeth Nutt. She says the grant is actually a climate change grant that will allow the study of the impact of a warming climate on the mosquito that causes Dengue fever, Chikungunya, and Zika.
Zika is of concern because of the possibility of birth defects linked to the virus in pregnant women. So far, cases in the U-S have been linked to those who traveled to warmer climes like South America or the Caribbean or those who had close or intimate contact with infected carriers returning from those areas. A warming climate could mean cases in the Southern U-S, and pregnant women are being warned to avoid areas where the carrier mosquitoes are present.