Zika travel advisory for pregnant women, Florida

The warning comes as Florida Gov. Rick Scott confirmed that 10 more people who likely contracted Zika after getting bit by local mosquitoes have been identified. Its connections to pregnancy defects, confirmed by scientists at the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have led the World Health Organization to declare it a global emergency.

“All the additional cases are in that one small square-mile geographic area just north of downtown Miami”, Scott said.

Originally, there were four Zika cases that officials believed to be acquired by local mosquitoes in Florida.

Despite the daily use of spraying to control the local mosquitoes, Florida vector control specialists are still seeing a lot of mosquito larvae and high numbers of the aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads Zika. While Frieden did not initially advise pregnant women to avoid traveling to the area, the situation quickly escalated over the weekend, causing health officials to change their tune. Zika has been linked to birth defects. The virus is found to linger in an infected person’s body for weeks or months, and to be transmittable in the same manner as an STD.

“It’s important guidance that health officials need to give and we applaud that”, Haley said.

Mosquitoes that spread Zika virus also spread dengue and chikungunya viruses.

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. Until now, those travel warnings were limited to foreign countries and USA territories, such as Brazil and Puerto Rico. “I’m guessing most women who are pregnant are doing that. I don’t think my business is going to be effected by Zika”.

The White House said the CDC team would be deployed to Florida “in short order” to assist the state.

Mosquito control is, for now, the primary weapon to controlling the spread of the disease, as well as other mosquito-spread infections. The warning was released on Monday, including recommendations that pregnant women living in the area, or women that intend to get pregnant, should use mosquito repellent and wear clothing that will prevent them from being bitten.

The Department of Heath has begun to contract with commercial pest control companies in Miami to “enhance and expand mosquito mitigation and abatement” in the area.

As Cruisers Choice previously reported, the Florida Department of Health went door-to-door in the impacted area near the Miami cruise port to conduct tests.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on a conference call with reporters said local mosquito control efforts have not worked as well as hoped.

Two of the infected people are women and 12 are men.

Zika virus is a mosquito-borne illness that is characterized by a fever, rash and joint pain. The others had no symptoms.

While infection with the Zika virus is harmless to most people, it can cause awful birth defects.

The best methods for avoiding mosquito bites is to use repellant and wear loose, long-sleeved shirts and trousers that fully cover the legs.

“There’s always the possibility of expanding the family”, she said”.

Jordan Davison and Melissa Felix work for a cruise line and were enjoying their day off Monday looking at the murals in the neighborhood.

Things are not looking good for Florida right now.