The small outbreak of Zika virus in Florida has spread, with government officials announcing five cases in popular Miami Beach Friday.
Advertisement
Florida health officials said they have tested more than 200 people in Miami-Dade and Broward counties since early July.
The number of Zika virus cases among military personnel has continued to rise, with 14 more cases reported in recent weeks to increase the total number from 41 to 55, a Pentagon spokesman said Friday.
Despite the heightened alert, local officials and business owners are assured that the Zika scare won’t be around long enough to have an impact on the city’s tourism. In addition to the previously identified area in the Wynwood neighborhood, there is now mosquito-borne spread of Zika virus in a section of Miami Beach.
Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic minority leader, said the transmission of Zika in Miami Beach “is the most alarming development yet in the rapidly growing threat of Zika in the United States”. Zika virus has spread through America since the a case in Brazil was confirmed. But crowds of tourists on Miami Beach, and the abundance of people in bathing suits and exposed skin, means more people may be infected. “I learned that as mayor a long time ago”, said Levine.
Aerial spraying can not be conducted amid the high-rises and ocean breezes of Miami Beach because the airplanes fly low, about 100 feet above the ground, Frieden said.
Scott’s announcement included a series of new measures to help restaurants, hotels and other tourism industry attractions with Zika prevention measures, including distribution of educational materials and spraying their businesses for mosquitoes at the state’s expense.
The agency also went a step further, advising pregnant women and their sexual partners “who are concerned about potential Zika virus exposure” that they “may also consider postponing nonessential travel to all parts of Miami-Dade county”.
Zika virus is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that was first identified in Uganda in 1947 in monkeys through a network that monitored yellow fever. A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Health said several active investigations are continuing, and that if the department determines there is continuing active transmission it will inform the public immediately.
The five newly announced cases included three men and two women, Mr. Scott said.
Zika virus infection is associated with birth defects and adverse pregnancy outcomes, especially microcephaly. Thus far in the US, more than 1,650 Zika infections have been reported, according to the CDC.
So far, Florida is the only state in the mainland U.S. where it has been reported. The Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits Zika breeds in standing water. Almost all have been the result of travel to a Zika-stricken country or sex with someone who was infected overseas, but now more than a dozen people have been infected in the U.S.
Advertisement
“We’re seeing more than 90 percent of mosquitoes in traps killed during each event”, he said.
