The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday lifted the travelling ban on Myami’s Wynwood after the area was declared free of the Zika virus by Florida Governor Rick Scott.
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CDC officials credit aggressive aerial spraying with naled, an insecticide that targets adult mosquitoes, and Bti, which kills mosquito larvae.
Dr. Amesh Adalja of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center said Scott is “rightly touting the major progress in Wynwood in controlling Zika”, adding that he is also trying to lift the stigma on that area where the first local transmission of Zika occurred in a US state.
A woman looks at a Center for Disease Control (CDC) health advisory sign about the dangers of the Zika virus as she lines up for a security screening at Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida, U.S., May 23, 2016. “People living in or visiting Miami-Dade County, particularly pregnant women, are encouraged to continue to take steps to prevent mosquito bites and to follow guidelines for preventing sexual transmission”, Frieden said in a statement. Wynwood became the first community in the country where mosquitoes were believed to carry the virus, which often causes no symptoms but can cause birth defects if contracted by pregnant women. The revised zone is now about 4.5 square miles.
Scott encouraged people to return to Wynwood. According to the CDC, the complete halting of Zika transmission in Wynwood is the direct result of both aerial and street-level pesticide sprays.
Currently, there is no vaccine or treatment for Zika, said the department.
“We’re doing everything we can do to educate the public and have the same success in Miami Beach as we have in Wynwood”, Scott said. The total number of local Zika cases in the state has reached 93. The neighborhood was the first community in the continental USA impacted by locally transmitted Zika.
But Scott’s visit comes just days after authorities expanded a local transmission area in nearby Miami Beach. To date, the County has disclosed that one of the samples derived from the Miami Beach Botanical Garden, but has been mum about the precise provenance of the other four, according to The Herald.
Florida will host “Dine Out Wynwood” on September 30 to support businesses there and Scott said he will be in Wynwood to participate in the event.
“While today’s news is great, the fight is not over”.
In the map below, provided by the Florida Department of Health on Friday, the red zones on the right are areas of active transmission in Miami beach. Florida may have been the first location to have locally transmitted Zika, but we will not be the last.
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But the agency on Monday recommended that pregnant women and their partners still consider postponing non-essential travel to Wynwood to avoid the risk of infection.
