CDC adds new Miami locations to Zika risk area

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is adding a square-mile area of Miami-Dade County to its list of places where the deadly Zika virus presents a significant risk to pregnant women.

The agency is strengthening travel and testing recommendations for pregnant women as the virus continues to be reported in Miami-Dade County.

The agency has designed two types of areas that present a Zika threat. A red area is a place where the agency has determined the virus presents a significant risk to pregnant women and the CDC recommends pregnant women avoid travel here. A yellow area is a region where there has been local transmission, but there is not enough evidence to prove that the intensity of transmission is equal to that of a red area. The CDC recommends pregnant women postpone travel here.

Right now, 4.5 square miles of Miami Beach and one square mile in Little River, Miami-Dade County, are red areas. The remainder of Miami-Dade is yellow, the CDC says.

The agency recommends that pregnant women who have lived in, traveled to or had unprotected sex with anyone who has lived in or traveled to any part of Miami-Dade County since Aug. 1 of this year be tested for Zika. The CDC also recommends that pregnant women who have lived in, traveled to or had unprotected sex with someone who lived in or traveled to the 4.5 square miles of Miami Beach with active spread of Zika since July 14 also be tested.

“Our guidance strengthens our travel advice and testing recommendations for pregnant women, to further prevent the spread of the infection among those most vulnerable,” Lyle Peterson, director of the CDC’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, said in a statement.