Mosquitoes are spreading the Zika virus in Miami's Little River neighborhood, the Florida Department of Health confirmed Thursday.
Zika has been linked to microcephaly, a birth defect that causes infants to be born with smaller heads and brains than usual. It has no known vaccine.
State health officials as of Thursday, Florida had 1,021 cases of the virus, 736 of them stemming from travel to parts of the world where Zika is widespread, such as the Caribbean and South America. In all, 106 cases involved pregnant women.
There was one new travel-related case of the virus in Palm Beach County on Wednesday, bringing the county's total to 39. There have been at least three non-travel related cases in the county, but none in the same neighborhood.
Little River lies along Interstate 95 from Northwest 79th Street to Northwest 62nd Street between Northwest 10th Avenue to the west and North Miami Avenue to the east. It is just north of Wynwood, the neighborhood north of downtown where the virus was first locally spread in the U.S.
Florida health officials Sept. 19 said active transmission had ended in Wynwood, after authorities took steps such as removing standing water and spreading insecticide “fogs” to kill the mosquitoes.
The state is trying to rid two Miami Beach areas of the mosquitoes spreading Zika locally. The state believes “ongoing transmission is only taking place within the identified areas in Miami-Dade County,” officials said Thursday.
