Miami Beach Parts Were Taken Out Of The Zika Travel Advisory

Beacon Transcipt – Miami Beach will get a reprieve as some of its North parts were taken out of the Zika travel advisory just as the WHO organization reduced the virus’s global emergency levels.

The CDC or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevent have released news on Tuesday, November 22, about the Miami Zika situation.

According to the statement, a new portion of the Miami Beach has been removed from the Zika travel advisory.

The area, which encapsulates 4.5 square miles, is located in North Miami Beach and has stopped being considered a high transmission risk area.

Its removal from the list comes after a 45 days period in which no new cases of the disease have been reported in or linked to it.

As such, its disease transmission risk is no higher than in the rest of the Miami-Dade County. However, the CDC continues to strongly warn pregnant women and their partners from traveling to the area.

Just as in the case of Miami Wynwood neighborhood, the first to be taken off the list back in September, the Miami-Dade County is still a Zika cautionary area.

As the zone was colored yellow on the CDC Zika map, Miami currently has only two other red colored areas. These are still considered to be active Zika transmission areas.

The respective zones are a 1 square-mile area in the Little River neighborhood and a 1.5 square-mile area in South Miami Beach.

The Florida Governor, Rick Scott, has released declarations following the CDC announcement. According to him, the Department of Health or DOH considers that only the two aforementioned areas are currently active transmission zones.

As such, further protection and prevention measures have to be taken so as to clear the remaining areas and lift their Zika travel advisory status.

Tom Frieden, the CDC Director and an MD and MPH stated in relation to the announcement that the centers thank the local and state residents and authorities for their resilience. He continued by recommending caution and mosquito bite prevention methods.

The Miami Beach newly cleared area comes soon after the WHO scaled back the global Zika threat. WHO or World Health Organization officials declared last week, on November 18, that Zika is no longer considered an active threat.

As such, the PHEIC or public health emergency of international concern status of the disease is over. After the status modification, the WHO can now continue and further along its studies concerning the disease.

WHO declared that the scaling back and removal of the PHEIC classification can determine a shift in the studies’ purposes.

As such, they can now aim for long-tern response measures, such as vaccines. This will also mean that the studies can be backed by more sustained funding.

According to a WHO statement released On Tuesday, the WHO will continue to collaborate with all the affected countries so as to help control the disease.

The organization will be trying to prevent adverse Zika reactions and also coordinate the research agenda so that both the nature of the disease and its treatment measures can be studied.

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