US health officials on Monday stopped warning pregnant women to stay out of Miami’s Wynwood arts district altogether, for fear of Zika, and they credited aerial pesticide spraying with killing mosquitoes that transmit the virus – but they continued to caution pregnant women about the city and surrounding areas. Health officials said that over the past several weeks, mosquito control workers there have seen fewer of the insects, the main culprits in spreading the virus.
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Dr. Lyle Petersen of the CDC told Time that containment has been less successful in Miami Beach because “tall buildings and ocean breezes” render aerial pesticide spraying less effective. Local officials combined aerial application of the larvicide Bti (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) with the adulticide naled, and Florida’s health department (Florida Health) rigorously investigated possible Zika infections. A proposed resolution by Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Grieco to enact a two-week moratorium on the aerial spraying was unsuccessful. The updated CDC warning now includes the Wynwood neighborhood as part of the more general, less stringent guidelines covering all of Miami-Dade County, though it continues to advise that men and women who traveled to Wynwood any time between June 15 and September 18 should wait at least eight weeks before trying to become pregnant.
Earlier Monday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott visited the Wynwood area north of downtown Miami.
Wynwood was the first place on the USA mainland where mosquitoes began transmitting Zika.
In the statement, Scott attributed the success in Wynwood to “our aggressive mosquito control measures, outreach to the community, educational efforts, and the vigilant actions of the residents and businesses in Wynwood”.
While the Wynwood neighborhood has been declared Zika-free, the outbreak remains ongoing since transmission and additional cases have been reported in Miami Beach. Given that local transmission continues to be a problem in Miami Beach, the continued travel warnings are certainly understandable.
Miami Beach’s tall buildings and ocean breezes make aerial spraying there more hard than in Wynwood, Petersen said.
Zika infections are mild for most people but can cause severe brain-related birth defects, including a dangerously small head, if women are infected during pregnancy. Dr. Still, the ongoing presence of Zika-positive mosquitoes in the neighborhood prompted The Miami Herald to file suit against Miami-Dade this week in hopes that the County will disclose the precise locations of all Zika-positive mosquito samples.
“We encourage people not to let down their guard”, CDC Director Tom Frieden said in a statement. It advised pregnant women who lived in or travelled to the neighbourhood during that time to consider getting tested for Zika. “We’ve also hired additional staff to run more tests at the same time”, she said.
“When we announced Wynwood as the first place in our nation to have local transmission of the Zika virus, Wynwood was immediately sent into the national spotlight”, Scott said in a statement today.
“It’s a great day in Wynwood”.
“I know many members of Florida’s Congressional Delegation are fighting for Zika funding and it is critically important that members come to Miami and hear directly from those who are on the frontlines of battling this virus”, the governor said. He couldn’t estimate how much Zika had impacted his business, but he questioned whether the response to the outbreak was proportionate to the risk.
Business owners in Wynwood certainly had impetus to do whatever they could to help the cause – the CDC’s previous warnings that pregnant women and their partners should avoid the Wynwood area caused a “significant slump” for local businesses, according to The Herald. The government was trying to show that they were doing something. He said the couple has tried to balance Zika with other safety recommendations for pregnant women.
“They tell you that you can’t eat sushi, and they tell you that you can’t eat soft cheese, and they tell that you can’t drink, right?” “Zika or no Zika, things can happen”.
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Scott called on the United States government to approve spending to arrest any future spread of the virus in Florida and elsewhere, including funds for mosquito abatement, education and testing for Zika.
