Q: What’s being done to protect Lincoln County residents from the spread of the Zika virus?

A: Zika is not currently known to reside in any native mosquito populations in Mississippi. But Jerome Goddard, an entomologist with Mississippi State University, said it is possible for the disease to spread to local mosquitoes.

“What’s worrisome is those people (with the virus) could sit out on the porch and have local mosquitoes bite them,” Goddard said.

Something similar has already happened in a neighborhood in Miami, Florida, where the latest numbers are at 22 non-travel related cases of Zika.

Brookhaven budgets at least $100,000 each year on the chemical insecticide used to control the mosquito problem. Goddard said those efforts do help control mosquito populations, but they do not reach the breeding grounds of aedes albopictus, the kind of mosquito that spreads Zika.

“I’m not saying there’s not a need for spraying, but the response for Zika would be different than the response for West Nile,” Goddard said.

U.S. health officials said they do not expect widespread outbreaks in this country of the sort seen in Brazil, and other parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, in part because of better sanitation, better mosquito control and wider use of window screens and air conditioners.

Zika is not always easy to track down. According to the Mississippi Department of Health, 80 percent of cases show no symptoms or only mild symptoms. But the virus presents a high risk of birth defects if transmitted to pregnant women.

To prevent the disease spreading in Mississippi, the MSDH has published a list of guidelines for residents returning home after traveling to areas where Zika is being actively transmitted.

• Take special precautions to avoid mosquito bites for three weeks after you return home in order to prevent the transmission of the Zika virus to local mosquitoes. This includes using mosquito repellent whenever you are outdoors, avoiding areas with mosquitoes, dressing in long pants and sleeves and staying indoors as much as possible.

• Do not personally work in your yard to remove standing water for three weeks after you return home. This has a greater chance of exposing you to local mosquitoes. After three weeks, removing standing water around your home is recommended to reduce mosquito breeding.

• Men should not have sex of any type with a pregnant women for the duration of the pregnancy, or use condoms consistently until the end of pregnancy.

• Men should use condoms every time they have any type of sex for at least eight weeks after they return home.

• Men who develop symptoms of Zika should use condoms for six months after the onset of symptoms.

• Pregnant women who have recently traveled to an area with Zika should talk to a healthcare provider about their travel even if they don’t feel sick. You should be tested for Zika when you return home even if you do not develop any symptoms of the disease. If you develop a fever, rash, joint pain or red eyes during your trip, or within two weeks after returning home, see your doctor as soon as possible.

• Women wanting to become pregnant should wait eight weeks after travel to Zika-affected areas, or wait eight weeks after any Zika symptoms appear before trying to conceive.