“While today’s news is great, the fight is not over”, said a statement by Florida Governor Rick Scott.
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Even though the travel warning has been lifted, the CDC continued to urge pregnant women and their partners who live in or travel to the area to take steps to avoid mosquito bites.
The CDC’s Interim Zika Response Plan requires that three mosquito incubation periods – about 45 days – should pass without any new cases before the agency considers updating a travel advisory.
Earlier Monday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott visited the Wynwood area north of downtown Miami. Thus, a warning box near the Wynwood area was drawn by the health authorities and the CDC issued a travel advisory for pregnant women and their partners to abstain from entering that box. Just this week, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services reported that another batch of mosquito samples collected from the Miami Beach neighborhood tested positive for Zika.
Wynwood was the first neighborhood in the continental United States with a local outbreak of Zika.
“We’ve reached this point because of the tremendous progress with mosquito control in the affected area, including the combination of aerial application of the larvicide. and rigorous investigation of possible Zika infections by Florida health officials”, Frieden said.
“Over the past few weeks, Floridians have worked together to prevent the spread of mosquitoes, take proper precautions to protect one another, and support local businesses in Wynwood”, said Scott in a statement.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention left in place a travel warning issued on August 19 for nearby Miami Beach even as it discontinued one issued on August 1 for Wynwood due to local transmission of the mosquito-borne virus that can cause serious birth defects.
Health officials in late July said the neighborhood north of downtown Miami was the first place in the US mainland to have mosquitoes transmitting the virus to people. 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. According to the CDC, the complete halting of Zika transmission in Wynwood is the direct result of both aerial and street-level pesticide sprays.
“The message with Wynwood is it was a huge success,”‘ said Dr Lyle Petersen of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“We could see additional cases”, said Frieden.
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Scott called on the USA 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. “And now they’re telling you that you can’t go outside”, he said.
