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BREAKING: CDC issues Zika travel advisory for Miami area

By Franco Ordoñez

fordonez@mcclatchydc.com

August 01, 2016 03:51 PM

Combating Zika in Miami's Wynwood district

Miami-Dade County Mosquito Control inspectors work to combat Zika on Saturday, July 30, 2016, after four people in South Florida acquired the virus from local mosquitoes.
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Miami-Dade County Mosquito Control inspectors work to combat Zika on Saturday, July 30, 2016, after four people in South Florida acquired the virus from local mosquitoes.
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WASHINGTON

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a travel advisory warning pregnant women from visiting an area with ongoing Zika virus transmission in Miami.

At least 14 people have been infected in the first locally transmitted Zika outbreak in the continental United States.

The White House confirmed Monday that the Centers for Disease Control would send an emergency response team to Miami to help the state’s health department in its investigation of the local cases.

The mosquito kills nearly 750,000 people each year. Malaria is the cause for the majority of these deaths, but a Zika outbreak has the Americas scared of this insect. This is how the insect spreads disease to its victims.

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The local cases, which have occurred within a one-square mile area, touch on the Wynnwood, Midtown and Design District neighborhoods in Miami, popular with tourists.

The CDC travel advisory recommends that pregnant women who live or travel to the area be tested for Zika. It suggests that couples who live or travel to the areas wait at least eight weeks before attempting to get pregnant. And men who have Zika symptoms should wait at least six months before trying to impregnate a partner.

It said the advisory applies to anyone who has visited the area since June 15, the earliest date any of the 14 diagnosed cases might have contracted the virus.

Email: fordonez@mcclatchydc.com; Twitter: @francoordonez.

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