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As Zika Spreads, CDC Tells Pregnant Women Not to Visit Miami Beach

HeadlineAug 23, 2016

Health officials have issued an unprecedented warning to pregnant women, telling them not to travel to parts of Miami-Dade County, amid dozens of confirmed cases of locally transmitted Zika virus. The virus has now been conclusively linked to microcephaly, a condition where babies born to infected mothers have abnormally small heads and other health problems. The travel advisory issued by the Centers for Disease Control concerns two neighborhoods: Wynwood and Miami Beach. This is Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine.

Mayor Philip Levine: “We need federal help. We need the federal government to step up and do what’s necessary, to reconvene and make sure the state, the county gets the proper funding immediately so that we can use these resources to combat this virus.”

Public health officials are warning that the Zika virus may soon spread to parts of Louisiana and Texas. It has also spread to the U.S. territories of American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, as well as throughout dozens of Caribbean and Latin American countries. The World Health Organization has declared Zika a global public health emergency.

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