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Zika spreads to Miami Beach, US expands travel warning

In Miami Beach, officials say, Zika transmission is confined to a 1.5sq mile area located between 8th and 28th streets in the popular South Beach neighbourhood.

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Amid Zika cases found in Miami Beach, Florida, health officials advised pregnant women to avoid traveling to active Zika zone, on Friday, August 19.

The five cases in Miami Beach involve two local residents and three tourists – hailing from New York, Texas and Taiwan – Florida Governor Rick Scott told a news conference.

“Zika virus can be present in semen so it can also be transmitted through sexual activity”, FDOH spokeswoman Mara Gambineri said in an email last month.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are warning pregnant women and their partners who are concerned about being exposed to the Zika virus to postpone nonessential travel to all parts of Miami-Dade County.

Health officials have identified a new Zika zone in Miami Beach, which is across Biscayne Bay from the initial Zika zone.

The escalation of the Zika crisis here sent tremors through the tourism industry and stoked the fears of pregnant women, anxious about the virus’ ability to cause severe brain damage in infants. But the virus only causes mild, flu-like symptoms in most people, making it hard to confirm local transmissions, the CDC said.

Combating the mosquitoes that carry Zika will not be easy in Miami Beach, health officials warned. Harteveld said that if even one or two percent of travelers avoid Florida, whether for leisure or business, this could cause a multi-million dollar hit to the economy.

Scott told reporters Friday that five Zika infections have been linked to an area that encompasses most of tourist-friendly South Beach. The recommendations are based on observations that the virus can live in semen as long as 93 days after an infection, but a recent report in the journal Eurosurveillence described two cases in which the virus lingered in semen six months after a person was infected.

An additional 10,000 Zika prevention kits A detailed plan from the Obama Administration on how they would like Florida to work with FEMA on how federal resources will be allocated to states now that this has become mosquito-borne in Florida. The Ventura County case is the 171st diagnosed in California, according to state health officials.

There are 14 locally transmitted cases in the U.S.

“Pregnant women and couples planning to have children need to be especially cautious because Zika can cause significant harm to a developing fetus”, said Dr. Smith. At least 63 pregnant women in Florida have contracted the disease.

Tourists and residents aren’t terribly likely to heed the agency’s usual advice to avoid mosquito bites by wearing long trousers and long-sleeved shirts, he conceded.

The county already has infrastructure in place to monitor the mosquito population, care of the West Nile Virus Control Program that began in 2000.

For more information, call the Zika virus information hotline at 1-855-622-6735.

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The U.S. Senate’s top Democrat issued a call for Congress to return from its weekslong summer break to deal with the virus, an unlikely scenario in light of the dysfunction that prevented lawmakers from agreeing on money to fight the mosquito-borne disease. Sen.

Dr. Aaron Elkin checks fetal size on Samantha Flax’s sonogram in Hollywood Fla. Aug. 12 2016. Flax and her sister Brittany Schuman who is also pregnant are both concerned about the Zika virus. As Zika updates stir new worries pregnant women are