FLICKR, DAN LUNDBERG

Florida Governor Rick Scott announced Monday (September 19) that Zika virus is no longer actively spreading in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, according to the Associated Press (AP). The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has lifted its travel advisory, which previously warned pregnant women against travel to the area.

The Wynwood neighborhood became the first site of local, mosquito-borne Zika transmission in the continental U.S. in late July. Authorities began aerial spraying of a pesticide that kills adult mosquitoes and street-level spraying of a pesticide that targets mosquito larvae to curb the outbreak, the CDC noted.

“This outbreak would have kept going without the aerial spraying,” Lyle Petersen, director of the CDC’s division of vector-borne diseases, told the AP. The area was declared virus transmission-risk–free after three mosquito incubation periods—45 days—passed without any new confirmed transmission cases, according to the agency.

Zika continues to spread...

He attributed the progress in Wynwood to “aggressive mosquito control measures, outreach to the community, education efforts and the vigilant actions of the residents and businesses in Wynwood,” while adding that “the expansion of the Miami Beach area where local transmission is occurring highlights the need for continued aggressive mosquito control measures and for Congress to immediately approve federal funding to combat Zika.”

The CDC travel advisory for Miami Beach remains in place. 

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