title: The public health planners' perfect storm: Hurricane Matthew and Zika virus.
abstract: Hurricane Matthew threatened to be one of the most powerful Hurricanes to hit the United States in a century. Fortunately, it avoided making landfall on Florida, the eye of the Hurricane remaining centered 40 miles off the Florida coast. Even so it has resulted in over $7 Billion USD in damage according to initial estimates with much of the damage ongoing in severe flooding. Response to and recovery from Hurricane Matthew challenged Florida's public health services and resources just as emergency Zika-specific congressional funding to combat Zika outbreaks in Florida had become available. Hurricanes can disrupt the urban environment in a way that increases the likelihood of vector-borne illnesses and their aftermath can severely strain the very infectious disease and infection control academe needed to combat vector-borne outbreaks. This commentary attempts to examine the challenges posed by Hurricane Matthew in Florida's efforts to contain Zika.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Winthrop University Hospital, USA; State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook, New York, USA. Electronic address: qahmed@winthrop.org.
authors.forename: Qanta A
authors.initials: QA
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Health & College of Medicine Alfaisal University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: Zmemish@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Ziad A
authors.initials: ZA
authors.lastname: Memish
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003140:Communicable Disease Control; D055867:Cyclonic Storms; D004190:Disasters; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004199:Disease Vectors; D005431:Florida / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health; D012066:Relief Work; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D000071243:Zika Virus Infection / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000635:transmission
keywords: Communicable diseases; Hurricane; Natural disaster; Zika virus