Eradicating Zika-spreading mosquito is proving hard

The CDC advises pregnant women not to travel to an area where active Zika transmission is ongoing, and to use insect repellent and wear long trousers and long-sleeved shirts if they are in those areas.

Most people infected with Zika won’t have symptoms, but for those who do, the illness is usually mild.

Zika infections in pregnant women can cause severe brain-related birth defects, including extremely small skulls.

Women who are pregnant and live in or may have travelled to the area since June 15 should talk with their doctor, Frieden added.

Irish pregnant women are being warned not to travel to parts of Florida, because new cases of Zika have been discovered.

The area, known for bold murals spray-painted across warehouses, art galleries, restaurants and boutiques, is rapidly gentrifying and has a number of construction sites where standing water can collect and serve as a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

On Friday, Florida said the first four cases of Zika in the state likely were caused by mosquitoes, the first sign that the virus is circulating locally, although it has yet to identify mosquitoes carrying the disease.

CDC officials said they could not remember another time in the 70-year history of the disease-fighting agency when it told members of the public not to travel someplace in the U.S. And men who have had symptoms of Zika should wait at least six months, the CDC said.

Schultz said Florida will be redoubling its vector control efforts in the outbreak area, which involves a 1-square-mile (2.6 square km) area in the mixed-use area north of downtown Miami.

The ongoing Zika outbreak was first detected in 2015 in Brazil, where it has been linked to more than 1,700 cases of the birth defectmicrocephaly. The tropical mosquito that spreads Zika travels less than 200 yards in its lifetime.

Male and female sexual partners of pregnant women who live in or who have traveled to this area should consistently and correctly use condoms or other barriers against infection during sex or abstain from sex for the duration of the pregnancy.

Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical medicine expert at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, said the CDC should be more cautious and expand the travel advisory to all of Miami-Dade County.

Al Jazeera’s Andy Gallacher, reporting from Miami, said: “The authorities here are concerned about people’s health but there could also be an impact on Florida’s tourism”.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on mosquito-borne diseases.

“This is an unusual neighborhood, or an emerging neighborhood”, Frieden said. He said it was based on the nation’s ability to contain previous outbreaks of other diseases carried by the same mosquito.

Mosquito-control efforts in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood have been hard because it’s a mixed-use area, where industrial sites are located next to a blend of residences and businesses, Frieden said.