U.S. health officials create color-coded
Zika zones in Florida
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[October 20, 2016]
By Julie Steenhuysen
CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. health officials
introduced a new color-coding system on Tuesday for Florida's Miami-Dade
County to distinguish between areas of active transmission that present
a significant risk of transmission and areas where there is a possible
risk of being infected.
The new system, announced by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, casts
all of Miami-Dade County as a yellow cautionary area with the exception
of Miami Beach and a one square mile area of Miami known as the Little
River neighborhood, which are high-risk red zones.
Miami is a major tourist destination.
Previously, the CDC had warned pregnant women to consider avoiding
non-essential travel to Miami-Dade County to reduce their risk infection
with Zika, a mosquito-borne virus that has been linked with severe birth
defects.
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"Zika continues to pose a threat to pregnant women living in or
traveling to Miami-Dade County," said Dr. Lyle Petersen, director of
CDC's Division of Vector-Borne Diseases.
"Our guidance today strengthens our travel advice and testing
recommendations for pregnant women to further prevent the spread of the
infection among those most vulnerable.”
Based on the new guidelines, the CDC said it recommends pregnant women
consider postponing travel to yellow areas of Miami-Dade County, and
they should specifically avoid red areas because they pose "a
significant risk to pregnant women."
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![](../images/102016pics/news_J17.jpg)
A map showing the active Zika zone is on display at the Borinquen
Health Care Center in Miami, Florida, U.S. on August 9, 2016.
REUTERS/Chris Keane/File Photo
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A map of the Zika warning areas can be found at
http://www.cdc.gov/zika/intheus/florida-maps.html.
The CDC urged pregnant women who have lived in, traveled to, or had
unprotected sex with someone who lived in or traveled to Miami-Dade
County since August 1, 2016, to be tested for Zika.
Some infectious disease experts have criticized the piecemeal
approach to warning women about the risk of Zika in Florida, a state
with a multibillion dollar tourism industry.
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen)
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