US health officials create color-coded Zika zones in Florida
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A map showing the active Zika zone is on display at the Borinquen Health Care Center in Miami (Copyright Reuters 2016)
U.S. health officials introduced a new color-coding system on Tuesday for Florida's Miami-Dade County to distinguish between areas of active transmission that present a significant risk of transmission and areas where there is a possible risk of being infected.
The new system, announced by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, casts all of Miami-Dade County as a yellow cautionary area with the exception of Miami Beach and a one square mile area of Miami known as the Little River neighborhood, which are high-risk red zones.
Miami is a major tourist destination.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Previously, the CDC had warned pregnant women to consider avoiding non-essential travel to Miami-Dade County to reduce their risk infection with Zika, a mosquito-borne virus that has been linked with severe birth defects.
"Zika continues to pose a threat to pregnant women living in or traveling to Miami-Dade County," said Dr. Lyle Petersen, director of CDC's Division of Vector-Borne Diseases.
"Our guidance today strengthens our travel advice and testing recommendations for pregnant women to further prevent the spread of the infection among those most vulnerable."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Based on the new guidelines, the CDC said it recommends pregnant women consider postponing travel to yellow areas of Miami-Dade County, and they should specifically avoid red areas because they pose "a significant risk to pregnant women."
A map of the Zika warning areas can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/zika/intheus/florida-maps.html.
The CDC urged pregnant women who have lived in, traveled to, or had unprotected sex with someone who lived in or traveled to Miami-Dade County since August 1, 2016, to be tested for Zika.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Some infectious disease experts have criticized the piecemeal approach to warning women about the risk of Zika in Florida, a state with a multibillion dollar tourism industry.