Zika triggers travel warning to Miami area
Print Edition
IN a highly unusual travel warning, United States health officials advised pregnant women to avoid a part of Miami where mosquitoes are apparently transmitting Zika directly to humans.
Health officials last Friday announced that mosquitoes had apparently started spreading Zika on the US mainland, citing four cases they strongly believe were caused by bites. Ten more cases were announced on Monday, even though Florida authorities have yet to find any mosquitoes actually carrying the virus.
Of the 14 people infected, two are women and 12 are men. Eight patients showed symptoms of Zika, which can include fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes. The others had no symptoms. The disease is often so mild that most people don’t know they are infected.
All 14 cases are thought to have occurred in Miami’s Wynwood arts district, a trendy, fast-gentrifying neighborhood of warehouses, art galleries, restaurants and boutiques.
More than 1,650 cases of Zika have been reported in US. Nearly all have been the result of travel to a Zika-stricken country or sex with someone who was infected abroad, but now more than a dozen people have been infected in the US.
Florida health officials said they have tested more than 200 people in Miami-Dade and Broward counties since early July. An emergency response team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will help Florida authorities investigate the outbreak, collect samples and control mosquitoes.
“We will continue to keep our residents and visitors safe utilizing constant surveillance and aggressive strategies, such as increased mosquito spraying, that have allowed our state to fight similar viruses,” Florida Governor Rick Scott said.
Health officials warned pregnant women to avoid the Zika-stricken part of Miami and told couples who had been there recently to put off having children for at least two months.
The CDC also said expectant mothers should get tested for the virus if they had visited the neighborhood since mid-June.
CDC officials said they could not remember another time in the 70-year history of the disease-fighting agency when it told the public not to travel someplace in the US.
Zika infections in pregnant women can cause severe brain-related birth defects, including extremely small skulls.
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