Zika Surge in Miami Neighborhood Prompts Travel Warning
by PAM BELLUCK AUG. 1, 2016
The Wynwood arts district of Miami, where cases of Zika have been spread by mosquitoes.
CreditMax Reed for The New York Times
Federal health officials on Monday urged pregnant women to stay away from a Miami neighborhood where they have discovered additional cases of Zika infection — apparently the first time the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised people not to travel to a place in the continental United States.
Florida officials said the number of Zika cases caused by local mosquitoes had risen to 14 from the four announced on Friday: 12 men and two women. They declined to say whether either woman was pregnant. All of the cases have been in one neighborhood.
Health officials said they still did not expect the number of local cases to grow into anything comparable to the epidemic that has raged across Latin America in recent months
The 10 newly identified patients were most likely infected weeks ago, as early as mid-June, the officials said.
But the new information casts doubt over the effectiveness of weeks of intensive mosquito-control efforts in South Florida and raises questions about tourism in the state, which drew more than 100 million visitors last year.
Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the C.D.C., said that the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits the Zika virus, has proved to be a wily adversary in Wynwood, a crowded, urban neighborhood in north Miami where all the cases were found. The mosquito may be resistant to the insecticides being used or may be able to hide in standing water.
“Aggressive mosquito control measures don’t seem to be working as well as we would like,” he said in a press briefing on Monday.
The authorities had expected additional cases of Zika infection linked to the neighborhood, he said. But officials were particularly concerned by indications over the weekend that “moderately high” numbers of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and their larvae were still being found in a one-square-mile section in Wynwood, an area of warehouses, art galleries, restaurants, bars, apartments and condominiums.
“We advise pregnant women to avoid travel to this area,” Dr. Frieden said, “and pregnant women who live and work in this area and their partners to make every effort to avoid mosquito bites and practice safe sex.”
Pregnant women who traveled to the neighborhood on or after June 15 should talk with their doctors about getting tested for possible infection, he said.
BELLUCK, Pam. Zika Surge in Miami Neighborhood Prompts Travel Warning. The New York Times. Disponível em: <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/health/zikaflorida.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fhealth&r=0>. Acesso em: 01 de agosto de 2016.
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Pregnant women who traveled to the neighborhood on or after June 15 should talk with their doctors about getting tested for possible infection, he said.
