U.S. health officials say they are ending their strongest warning to pregnant women to stay out of Miami's Wynwood arts district.
No new cases of mosquito-borne Zika illness have been reported in that area since early August, and in the past several weeks, mosquito control workers have seen only low numbers of the kind of bugs that are the main spreaders of the virus.
Health officials said Monday they credit aggressive aerial spraying with naled, a pesticide that targets adult mosquitoes, and Bti, which kills mosquito larva.
Dr. Lyle Petersen of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called it "a huge success." He says the outbreak would have kept going "without the aerial spraying."
While the CDC lifted its sternest warning to pregnant women, the agency noted that a mosquito transmission zone in nearby Miami Beach la st week grew from an areas of roughly 1.5 miles to 4.5 miles, after a cluster of new cases popped up north of some earlier reports.
The agency continues to advise that pregnant women consider postponing non-essential travel to all of Miami-Dade County - including the Wynwood area.
