CDC Director warns Zika is still a big threat to the US
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood Zika-free on Monday. However, the CDC recommends pregnant women and their partners remain cautious about travel within other parts of Miami Dade County. The virus is linked to neurological disorders in the fetuses and newborns of women infected with the virus.
Wynwood, the first US city where Zika was contracted by local mosquitoes, was under a federal and state travel warning for two months. Florida Governor Rick Scott says the state hasn’t seen any evidence of mosquito-transmitted Zika in Wynwood for at least 45 days.
“It’s a striking result,” CDC Director Tom Frieden tells Yahoo Finance at the Concordia Summit in New York City. Frieden explains that Wynwood was not an easy place to control Zika because of its many construction sites, vacant lots and hard-to-get-to places. He said weeks of ground-based spraying had little to no impact.
“Then they applied aerial spraying,” says Frieden, “and almost immediately the mosquito counts went to zero and transmission of the disease stopped.”
Aerial spraying is controversial because of its possible harmful effects to people’s health and the environment.
Local businesses in Wynwood are cheering about the travel warning being lifted. The Wynwood Business Improvement District estimates that restaurant and retail sales in the area sank 50% year-over-year since Zika transmission first made headlines.
Meanwhile, just six miles away in Miami Beach, the CDC has tripled the Zika virus transmission zone. It now includes a 4.5 square-mile zone running from 8th Street to 63rd Street.
Frieden says a mosquito travels just 500 feet in its lifetime, which is why it’s possible to declare Wynwood Zika-free, even though nearby Miami Beach is still under threat. “Unlike West Nile Virus, where we see it in a whole region,” Frieden explains, “[Zika] is very focal in the US.”
