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 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention left in place a
travel warning issued on Aug. 19 for nearby Miami Beach even as it
discontinued one issued on Aug. 1 for Wynwood due to local
transmission of the mosquito-borne virus that can cause serious
birth defects.
"We want to continue to emphasize to pregnant women that they still
should consider postponing non-essential travel for all of
Miami-Dade (County). That is still in effect," CDC spokesman Tom
Skinner said.
The CDC's Wynwood travel warning had been the first time the agency
had ever told travelers to stay away from a neighborhood in any U.S.
city.
But the agency on Monday recommended that pregnant women and their
partners still consider postponing non-essential travel to Wynwood
to avoid the risk of infection.
The travel warnings had serious implications for Miami's lucrative
tourism industry. Florida continues to battle a widening outbreak of
Zika in trendy Miami Beach.
Florida Governor Rick Scott, a Republican, told a news conference
before the CDC's action that there had not been any cases of Zika
infection in the Wynwood neighborhood in the past 45 days, and
declared that "everybody should be coming back here and enjoying
themselves."
"We had an issue, everybody took it seriously, and we solved it,"
Scott said.
Scott's comments followed news on Friday that the Zika transmission
zone in Miami Beach, a popular tourist destination, had tripled in
size after five new cases of infection were detected.
Wynwood was the first neighborhood in the continental United States
with a local outbreak of Zika. U.S. health officials have concluded
that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a
birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe
developmental problems in babies.
The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light
last fall in Brazil, which has since confirmed more than 1,800 cases
of microcephaly.
The CDC said Wynwood had been considered an area of active Zika
virus transmission from June 15 until Sunday. It advised pregnant
women who lived in or traveled to the neighborhood during that time
to consider getting tested for Zika.
ADVICE FROM CDC CHIEF
CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden urged Miami residents "not to let
down their guard."
"We could see additional cases. People living in or visiting
Miami-Dade County, particularly pregnant women, are encouraged to
continue to take steps to prevent mosquito bites and to follow
guidelines for preventing sexual transmission,” Frieden said in a
statement.
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Scott called on the U.S. government to approve spending to arrest
any future spread of the virus in Florida and elsewhere, including
funds for mosquito abatement, education and testing for Zika. A
spending bill has been delayed in Congress.
Infectious diseases experts praised the achievement in Wynwood as a
demonstration of how rigorous public health efforts can stop an
emerging infectious disease threat.
"We have that capacity in this country," said Dr. William Schaffner
of Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Dr. Amesh Adalja of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center said
Scott is "rightly touting the major progress in Wynwood in
controlling Zika," adding that he is also trying to lift the stigma
on that area where the first local transmission of Zika occurred in
a U.S. state.
Adalja said CDC's prior guidance was that the area was considered "a
big enough risk to advise pregnant women (and their partners) to
avoid it period; that's not the case now."
Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at
Baylor College of Medicine, said the idea of creating a surgically
precise "cordon sanitaire" dividing neighborhoods with Zika
transmission and those without "does not follow the science."
Hotez said given the travel of infected people in and out of
infected areas, the outbreak area is likely far larger. Hotez in
late July called for a travel ban on all of Miami-Dade County for
pregnant women, women who might be pregnant and their partners, who
might transmit the virus sexually.
(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins, Julie Steenhuysen and Ransdell
Pierson; Editing by Dan Grebler and Will Dunham)
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