CDC updates Zika travel, testing recommendations for Miami-Dade County

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today issued updated travel and testing recommendations for pregnant women who live in or travel to Miami-Dade County, FL, or have unprotected sex with someone who has. Pregnant women should consider postponing travel to all areas of Miami-Dade County, and specifically avoid travel to areas of active Zika transmission, CDC said. Pregnant women who have lived in or traveled to Miami-Dade County since Aug. 1, or have unprotected sex with someone who has, should be tested for Zika virus in accordance with CDC guidance, the agency said. They and their partners also should take steps to avoid mosquito bites, and use condoms or not have sex during the pregnancy, CDC said. Among other recommendations, women and men who are planning to conceive should consider avoiding non-essential travel to areas with active Zika virus transmission, the agency said. As of Oct. 12, 128 locally transmitted cases of the mosquito-borne virus had been reported in the continental U.S., all of them in Florida. For more information on Zika, which can cause microcephaly and other birth defects in pregnant women, visit http://www.cdc.gov/zika and http://www.aha.org/zika.