Zika warning: CDC advises pregnant women to avoid Miami Beach

By JENNIFER KAY, Associated Press

By Daniel Chang, Miami Herald

MIAMI — At least five people, including two local residents and three tourists, have contracted Zika virus from mosquitoes in Miami Beach, Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced Friday as he identified a 1.5-square-mile zone of active transmission in the heart of the region’s tourism engine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quickly followed up with a new travel advisory for pregnant women, telling them to consider avoiding “all non-essential travel” to all of Miami-Dade County due to evidence of widespread transmission of Zika, which can cause birth defects.

“If you’re concerned about Zika,” CDC Director Tom Frieden said, “you may consider postponing all non-essential travel to all parts of Miami-Dade County.”

Pregnant women were specifically advised to avoid travel to the area of Miami Beach between 8th and 28th Streets from Biscayne Bay to the Atlantic Ocean — in addition to a previously identified one-square-mile zone in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood.

In reporting a new area of ongoing transmission in Miami Beach, Scott identified the people who had contracted the disease as two Miami-Dade residents, and three tourists from New York, Texas and Taiwan.

The CDC also said pregnant women who were in the transmission zone of Miami Beach since July 14 should see a doctor to consider being tested for Zika.

With the virus crossing Biscayne Bay to Miami Beach, the fight to contain the Aedes aegypti species of mosquito that transmits the disease will be much more challenging, Frieden said.

Aerial spraying cannot be conducted amid the high rises and ocean breezes of Miami Beach because the airplanes fly low, about 100 feet above the ground, Frieden said. But crowds of tourists on Miami Beach, and the abundance of people in bathing suits and exposed skin, means more people may be infected.

“The inability to use aerial spraying there means we will be restricted to ground-based technologies, like backpack spraying,” he said.

The CDC has an Emergency Response Team in Miami working with the Florida Department of Health to investigate local cases of Zika, Frieden noted. And he said aerial spraying and backpack fogging in Wynwood has been effective.

“We’re seeing more than 90 percent of mosquitoes in traps killed during each event,” he said.

While Frieden praised Florida’s health department for its efforts, Scott criticized the federal agency for being slow to respond to his repeated requests for additional resources, such as testing kits and prevention supplies for pregnant women.

Scott said the health department has tested more than 6,673 people statewide for Zika virus, and that Florida currently has the capacity to test nearly 5,000 people for active Zika and almost 2,800 people for Zika antibodies.

But Scott, speaking at the Miami-Dade Department of Health, said the state needs more federal help: an additional 5,000 Zika antibody test kits to ensure rapid testing, additional lab support and personnel, and 10,000 Zika prevention kits for pregnant women.

“I have repeatedly called on the federal government for these kits,” Scott said, “and as of today we have not received additional resources for them.”

Frieden said the CDC already has sent Florida 10,000 cans of mosquito repellent, which is included in a Zika prevention kit along with bed netting and other materials. He said the federal agency also has sent Florida $35 million to purchase any Zika prevention and preparedness supplies the state may need.

Frieden said the CDC received the governor’s request for additional kits after Scott’s morning press conference and that the federal agency had already arranged for shipping of the supplies.

“They will arrive Tuesday,” Frieden said.

Local officials learned of the Miami Beach cases on Thursday morning during calls with Florida Department of Health on Thursday to alert them.

But as late as Thursday evening, Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine denied that Zika was in his city, the heart of Miami-Dade’s tourism industry.

“There is no epidemic, no outbreak of Zika in Miami Beach,” he said, shortly after arriving from a trip to New York late Thursday.

The health department also said Thursday that the only place in Florida with active spread of the disease was a one-square-mile zone in Wynwood.

But the discussions on Thursday morning between the county health department and Miami Beach officials, along with an email from City Manager Jimmy Morales, indicated that Zika was spreading in Miami Beach and likely had met CDC guidelines for confirmed transmission of the disease.

Those guidelines define a local outbreak as two or more people infected who do not share a household, with travel and sexual transmission ruled out, and who acquired the disease within one square mile over a period of two weeks or more.

The first word to local officials came from the state health department, which alerted them to the local Zika cases on Thursday morning.

By noon, Morales had informed Miami Beach commissioners by email that two people had acquired the disease, though he did not identify whether the cases were within a one-mile diameter of each other.

“I have been informed that two Zika cases have been linked to Miami Beach, one a tourist who visited the Beach approximately two weeks ago, and another a resident who also works on the Beach,” Morales said in the email sent to commissioners at 11:22 a.m.

At 4:45 p.m., Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s office issued a press release announcing that, “Today, the Florida Department of Health has confirmed that two additional individuals have acquired the Zika virus locally through mosquitoes in Miami-Dade County.”

Scott’s announcement included a series of new measures to help restaurants, hotels and other tourism industry attractions with Zika prevention measures, including distribution of educational materials and spraying their businesses for mosquitoes at the state’s expense.

At 5 p.m., the Florida health department issued its daily Zika report, announcing that two new local Zika infections had been confirmed in Miami-Dade, both of them outside of Miami’s Wynwood area. The report did not give a more specific location for the two cases, and the health department did not respond to questions about Zika spreading in Miami Beach.

Florida has confirmed 35 cases of local transmission of Zika. Statewide, a total of 577 people in Florida have contracted the disease, mostly through travel abroad, according to the health department. At least 63 pregnant women in Florida have contracted the disease, which can cause severe birth defects.

South Florida’s hospitality industry has dreaded the possibility of Zika spreading to Miami Beach because the region’s economy relies heavily on its $24 billion-a-year tourism industry. More than half of the hotel rooms in Miami-Dade are located in Miami Beach.