Pregnant women have been urged to avoid a Miami neighborhood where additional cases of the Zika infection have been found — the first time the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has encouraged people not to travel to a place in the United States, according to The New York Times.
The number of Zika cases caused by local mosquitoes has gone from four to 14, 12 men and two women, according to Florida officials, and all of the cases have been found in one neighborhood. They declined to mention if either of the infected women was pregnant.
The officials went on to say that the 10 newly identified patients were more than likely infected as early as mid-June.
This latest information could lead one to question just how effective the weeks of mosquito-control efforts in South Florida area, thus putting tourism (the area attracted over 100 million last year) at risk.
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, according to The New York Times.
“Aggressive mosquito control measures don’t seem to be working as well as we would like,” he said in a press briefing on Monday.
Frieden went on to say that pregnant women who visited the neighborhood on or after June 15 should discuss getting tested for the possible infection with their doctors.
According to health officials, those mosquitoes carrying the virus probably acquired it by biting an infected traveler from Latin America or the Caribbean.
–Morgan Agesen
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