Officials have identified a second area of Zika transmission on the USA mainland, Florida governor Rick Scott said.
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That’s one of 38 countries subject to Zika-related travel health notices issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Until now, state officials had said the only area where active transmissions were occurring was in the area of the Wynwood arts district in Miami. The CDC said that pregnant women and their partners may consider avoiding travel to all of Miami-Dade County and that all pregnant women in the USA should be evaluated for possible Zika infection.
Ottawa is recommending that pregnant women and women who plan to get pregnant avoid travelling to South Florida after more cases of Zika virus linked to mosquitoes were reported in the area.
The five latest patients were infected within a 1.5 square mile area of Miami Beach, said Scott, whose state is the first to experience a Zika outbreak from native mosquitoes. The new cases involve three tourists and two local residents, Scott said during a news conference. He added that a new Zika zone was made between 8th Street and 28th Street in Miami Beach. In the past month, Zika cases were reported in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood.
Two events are happening that raise concern-an increased number of Zika cases among travelers returning home to Los Angeles County and mosquito season, said Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, deputy chief of the acute communicable disease control program at the county’s public health department.
Health officials in the United States have already been preparing for the possibility of Zika transmission via blood transfusion.
There are 24 confirmed travel-related Zika virus cases in Arizona, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Alarmed by a new cluster of Zika infections, federal health officials are warning pregnant women to avoid traveling to parts of Miami Beach.
Brazil has confirmed more than 1,700 infected babies have microcephaly, a life-threatening condition that results in an abnormally small head and severe brain damage.
“The mosquitoes are persistent and we won’t know for a couple of weeks whether these aggressive measures have worked”, Frieden said.
Women who are pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant are advised to avoid the area. Breeding areas are also being treated with larvicide, Terrell said. Authorities responded with a partial travel restriction for the area and have sprayed to control the mosquitoes. It is the second area in Miami-Dade County to report a local outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease, which can cause birth defects. Both women who gave birth tested positive for the virus.
In addition to spreading information about Zika and testing for the virus in humans and mosquitos, the city is working to limit the mosquito population.
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“So far, what we’re seeing is what we anticipated – multiple individual instances and some cases of clusters”, said Frieden.
