4 more people infected with Zika virus in Florida
MIAMI -- Florida reported on Tuesday that four more people have been infected with the Zika virus linked to birth defects.
The four new cases are thought to have originated in the same Wynwood section of Miami. Before the announcement, the mayor of Miami-Dade County Carlos Gimenez, suggested Zika is under control here.
"The fact is we do not have we have not had one mosquito that we've caught that has been active with the Zika virus, so hopefully this is very, very contained," he said.
Experts say finding an infected mosquito is like locating a needle in a haystack.
Every day, crews in the Wynwood neighborhood are clearing drains, spraying insecticide and throwing mosquito dunks, which kill larvae for up to 30 days.
The national attention and a CDC travel advisory, recommending pregnant women avoid the area, is backfiring on business owners.
"We did 10 percent of revenue on Saturday compared to the usual Saturday. When you consider Saturday is 50 percent of our weekly revenue that is the impact it's having on us," one business-owner said.
Erica Musser, 35, and her husband Daryl, are rethinking pregnancy because of the Zika threat. Musser is a clinical child psychologist, who lives nearly six miles from the Zika zone.
"We're sort of running out of time here to start a family," she said. "There have been a lot of discussions around the dinner table about whether to keep trying at this point. This isn't me crunching numbers for my data, this is our lives and this is our family."
In Wynwood, officials said insecticide spraying has reduced the mosquito population. Where 25 mosquitoes were being found in traps, now officials say they're finding only one.
There will be more aerial spraying Wednesday morning and again on Sunday.