The Miami Herald cited sources close Florida health officials in a report that said that a new area of Zika transmission has been identified in Miami Beach, Thursday.
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STAT spoke with an anonymous health official who said that a number of cases that have popped up in Florida that can be linked to Miami Beach.
US health officials are warning pregnant women to avoid Miami Beach, where Florida officials say mosquitoes have spread the Zika virus to five people.
Clark County reported its first case of the Zika virus on Wednesday.
Seventy percent of overall participants said they are concerned about the Zika virus being in Florida, but most respondents are aware the outbreak is confined to a small district in the Miami-Dade area. To assist in this effort, I have also directed DOH to work with DBPR to provide educational materials and offer mosquito spraying at no cost to these businesses in Miami-Dade County.
Miami Beach City Manager Jimmy Morales said in a written statement that the city is in constant communication with Florida state health officials regarding the most effective approach of mosquito control, the paper says.
In a statement issued shortly after Gov. Rick Scott and health officials released the latest information, the CDC said pregnant women may also want to consider postponing nonessential travel throughout Miami-Dade County if they’re concerned about potential exposure to the mosquito-borne virus. The traveler recently returned from the Florida city, which has seen at least 30 local transmissions of the virus.
Additional infections outside Wynwood and Miami Beach also are being investigated.
Despite there not being a big risk of contracting Zika in Grant County, the GCHD encourages residents to avoid mosquito bites if at all possible.
There are now four-travel associated cases in the county, said Chris Ericsson, the deputy health commissioner. In March, the country reported only two microcephaly cases, and the increase hints that Zika virus is more widespread in Haiti than previously thought.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention referred calls by Reuters to state health officials.
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Zika is known to cause serious birth defects and other poor pregnancy outcomes in babies whose mothers are infected during pregnancy. “We have yet to find a [Zika] positive mosquito”.
