By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) – Florida officials on Tuesday announced the first case of Zika transmitted by mosquitoes in Pinellas County, located some 265 miles (425 km) from Miami, where the first locally transmitted U.S. cases were reported. Steve Huard, acting spokesman for Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County, said the case involves a woman without a significant travel history, indicating the virus was contracted locally. “We don’t know where it originated, and we are doing appropriate testing and medical surveillance.” Florida Governor Rick Scott said the state department of health has begun door-to-door outreach in Pinellas County, testing individuals to find other cases.

By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) – While most older women might not need breast cancer screening with mammography more often than every three years, some women with dense breasts may need mammograms every year, U.S. research suggests. Among women aged 50 to 74, those without a high risk for breast cancer or dense breast tissue didn’t have an increase in breast cancer deaths if they went for mammography every three years instead of every two years. “Women at low risk and low breast density will experience more harms with little added benefit with annual and biennial screening compared to triennial screening, whereas women with dense breasts and high breast cancer risk may have added benefit from annual compared to biennial mammography,” lead study author Amy Trentham-Dietz of the University of Wisconsin-Madison said by email.

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) – Britain on Thursday said it would tax companies which sell sugary soft drinks and invest that money in health programs for school children, part of a long-awaited strategy to curb childhood obesity that critics say is too weak. Drinks companies were also angered by the plan which urges industry to cut sugar in products aimed at children, saying nearly a third of those aged 2 to 15 are already overweight or obese. In a statement announcing details of the strategy, which has been in the works for several years, junior finance minister Jane Ellison said obesity was costing Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) billions of pounds every year.