Urgent Care Enters the Zika Fray in South Florida

Baptist Health South Florida is encouraging patients who are concerned they may have been exposed to Zika virus, but who do not have symptoms, to visit the system’s urgent care centers in order to prevent clutter in its emergency rooms. That news comes on the heels of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adding another location for pregnant women to avoid in Florida, along with suggestions that they and their sexual partners consider postponing nonessential travel to all parts of Miami-Dade County. The Florida Department of Health (DOH) says clusters of cases indicate ongoing local transmission of the virus. While there is insufficient evidence to say the virus is spreading throughout the entire county, there have been instances of mosquitos infecting people outside the new “zone” within Miami Beach and in the 1-square-mile section of the Wynwood neighborhood just north of downtown Miami. Most recently, Baptist Health South Florida reported three new non-travel related cases of Zika in Miami-Dade County; the DOH says there are now 36 patients who’ve become infected through local transmission, and 488 whose infections stemmed from traveling outside the U.S. Baptist Health South Florida is under a level 3 alert, and has tested 3,340 people for the Zika virus.