The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quickly followed up with a new travel advisory for pregnant women, telling them to consider avoiding “all non-essential travel” to all of Miami-Dade County due to evidence of widespread transmission of Zika, which can cause birth defects.
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Gov. Rick Scott and state health officials had previously said local transmission of the disease was only occurring in Miami’s Wynwood community.
This comes after Florida Gov. Rick Scott said officials identified it as a second area of Zika transmission.
Reporting Aug. 17 in the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors believe that a blood donor passed along the typically mosquito-borne virus in late January to two hospitalized patients who needed transfusions.
Global health officials suspect a connection between pregnant woman catching the virus and a birth defect called microcephaly in newborns.
“We’re in the midst of mosquito season and expect more Zika infections in the days and months to come”, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said in a statement.
The new zone in Miami Beach, where the transmissions are believed to have occurred, is between 8th Street and 28th Street, between the beach and the Intracoastal Waterway. The Associated Press also reported that CDC officials are saying spraying for mosquitoes will not be possible in the South Beach area of Florida because of the number of high-rises and strong winds. “There are undoubtedly more infections that we’re not aware of right now”, he said.
Mosquitoes are spreading Zika in a whole new area of Miami, the CDC announced Friday.
U.S. Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat, 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”. Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, just back from NY, walked right into the excitement over the new Zika cases.
Yet, Joseph Furst, chairman of the Wynwood Business Improvement District refuted Scott’s claims that his administration is helping businesses and property owners in Wynwood from the negative economic impact caused by the ongoing locally transmitted Zika virus outbreak.
He also criticized Scott and state health officials for creating so-called Zika zones like the one that includes Wynwood.
“CDC disease control experts are doing everything they can to support state and local control programs to stop the spread of Zika”, he said. “There is no epidemic, no outbreak of Zika in Miami Beach”, he said, adding that health officials told him the link to Miami Beach had not yet been confirmed.
“There is no epidemic, no outbreak of Zika in Miami Beach”, he said, shortly after arriving from a trip to NY late Thursday. The new 1.5-square-mile zone encompasses Lincoln Road, Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue, filled with hotels, restaurants and shops that are popular with tourists as well as locals.
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So far, there have been 35 cases of likely local transmission in the state, including the two new cases announced on Thursday. The total area is less than 1.5 square miles. More than 48 per cent of all visitors stayed in Miami Beach. Statewide, a total of 577 people in Florida have contracted the disease, mostly through travel overseas, according to the health department. Partners of pregnant women are advised to use a condom to guard against sexual transmission during pregnancy.
