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Pregnant women should now avoid the section of Miami Beach where Zika is spreading, in addition to a smaller area north of downtown Miami, theCenters for Disease Control and Preventionannounced Friday.

Florida health officials, who have been grappling with a Zika outbreak in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood, confirmed Friday that five people also have been infected in Miami Beach, which is across Biscayne Bay from the rest of the city. That brings the total number of infections spread by local mosquitoes to 36, Gov. Rick Scott announced Friday.

The Zika patients were infected within a 1.5 square mile area of Miami Beach, said Scott, whose state is the first to experience a Zika outbreak from native mosquitoes. The bulk of the USA's more than 2,200 Zika cases are related to travel.

Mosquitoes could be spreading in other areas in Miami-Dade County that haven't yet been recognized, according to the CDC.

Scott, who has requested additional help from the CDC to deal with the outbreak, said officials are taking aggressive mosquito-control measures.

The affected area of Miami Beach stretches from the beach to the Intracoastal Waterway, from 8th Street to 28th Street, Scott said. This neighborhood is several miles away and on the other side of Biscayne Bay from Wynwood, the first Miami neighborhood to experience a Zika outbreak.

The CDC took the unprecedented step earlier this month to warn pregnant women to avoid Wynwood, located north of downtown.

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USA TODAY

What you need to know about Zika and pregnancy

 

Pregnant women are at greater risk than others from Zika because the virus can cause devastating birth defects in their fetuses, including serious brain damage.

"I ask every Floridian to take proper precautions," Scott said. "We all have to do our part to wear bug spray and dump standing water," where mosquitoes can breed, he said. "If you see standing water, no mater how small, dump it."

The new Miami Beach cases include two people from Miami Beach, one from New York, one from Texas and one from Taiwan.

Scott said Florida "will do everything we can to help pregnant women all across our state. We have a safe state and we are going to keep it that way."

Scott has asked the CDC for an additional 5,000 Zika antibody test kits "to ensure we can quickly test people for the virus and additional lab support personnel to help us expedite Zika testing," he said. He has also asked the Obama Administration for an additional 10,000 Zika prevention kits. Scott said he's waiting for a "detailed plan" on how to work with FEMA.

At least 529 pregnant women in the continental U.S. and Hawaii have been infected with Zika, according to the CDC. Seventeen American women have given birth to babies with Zika-related birth defects and six have lost pregnancies due to the disease, according to the CDC.

More than 10,000 people have been diagnosed with Zika in Puerto Rico, including more than 1,000 pregnant women, according to the Puerto Rico health department.

Liz Szabo reports for USA TODAY. Liz Freeman reports for the Naples (Fla.) Daily News.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/08/19/5-zika-cases-found-miami-beach/88993652/