CDC urges pregnant women who have visited Florida county to get tested for Zika

A worker sprays to kill mosquitoes.
(Image credit: Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP/Getty Images)

Pregnant women who have visited any part of Florida's Miami-Dade County since August 1 are being urged by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to get tested for Zika virus.

The CDC made its recommendation on Wednesday after state officials determined last week that a one-square-mile zone in Miami's Little River neighborhood is home to mosquitoes that are spreading the virus, which can cause severe birth defects. The Florida Department of Health says that this year, 173 people in the county have contracted the virus from mosquitoes.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.