The Florida Department of Health confirmed the first case of Zika in Miami on July 29, 2016. Since then, the FDH says there have been a handful of cases within one region. The recent outbreak hit Wynwood hard, with the area often being compared to a ghost town. According to The Miami Herald, in 2015 Miami made $24.4 billion from tourism and received about 15.5 million tourists. When a place like Miami, which financially relies on tourism, goes through a scare such as the Zika outbreak, it loses money.
Miami Beach is an iconic vacation spot embedded into pop culture that, according to The Miami New Times, in 2014 brought in 47.8 percent of tourists that came to the Miami area. One of Miami’s most frequent visitors, Brazilians, may avoid the city because of Brazil’s Zika epidemic and their own economic recession. So far, the disease is only in Miami Beach and Wynwood, but this could potentially put Palmetto students who visit these areas frequently at risk.
“I go to the beach all the time,” sophomore Kate Elson said. “Zika’s very dangerous and we should all take preventive measures, but I think the media is instilling unnecessary hysteria.”
The virus has become the punchline to countless jokes and memes, resembling to the ebola outbreak in 2014. Ever since the Zika’s first case in the US, fear and misinformation has spread throughout the country. It is covered by news programs frequently that often do not explain what the virus really is.
Zika is a short term virus that spreads only through mosquito bites and unprotected sex. In most cases there are no symptoms and it rarely triggers paralysis, a condition in which a person loses the ability to move or feel in part or most of their body. The real people in danger are pregnant women as unprotected sex spreads the virus and leaves the child with a serious birth defect that shrinks the baby’s head. This birth defect may affect intellectual disability and speech delay, and in severe cases can cause seizures and abnormal muscle functionality.
“I got a mosquito bite and freaked because I thought it might be Zika,” sophomore Anna Rogers said.
Fortunately, Zika does not harm future pregnancies for women who are not pregnant when they contract Zika. Nonetheless, public fear and ignorance still exists, causing the abandonment of Wynwood and places like it by tourists.This economic nightmare could spread to Miami Beach, which would significantly wound the city’s tourism industry, and it could even venture on further into the state.
Walt Disney World precautions giving out free mosquito repellent to visitors. Miami Dade County Public Schools says the best way to prevent Zika is to prevent mosquito bites. They recommend draining all standing water and to protect exposed skin with EPA – registered insect repellent.