Miami Zika Alert: Areas Of Local Transmissions Increasing  

Pregnant women are now being advised to avoid yet another area of Miami due to locally-transmitted cases of the Zika virus.
 
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning women who are expecting a baby,or their sexual partners, to avoid a nearly two-mile area of Miami Beach that encompasses the beach to the Intracoastal Waterway and from Eighth Street to 28th Street.  

This is in addition to parts of Wynwood, an area north of downtown Miami that was identified last month as a place pregnant women and their partners should avoid.

Florida Governor Rick Scott announced Friday that five locally transmitted cases of the Zika virus have been identified in Miami Beach, three men and two women.  The names of the victims have not been released.  Three of the people who contracted Zika in that area were from out of town and have returned to their homes in Texas, New York and Taiwan.

The Zika virus is spread primarily from mosquito bites, although sometimes it can be transmitted through sexual contact.  The virus poses little threat to anyone except unborn children.  Most people who contract Zika recover without incident.  In fact, most people who get Zika don't exhibit any symptoms at all.
 
However, women who contract Zika during pregnancy can deliver babies with severe birth defects.  The most common Zika-related birth defect is microcephaly, a condition where the child is born with an abnormally small head and brain dysfunction.

Miami health officials have been canvassing the affected areas testing residents.  They're also aggressively spraying mosquito repellant.