Public Health England Warning

Note if you are pregnant or could become pregnant the advise is to consider postponing trips to Florida due to native Zika transmission.

oh oh...i'm afraid this may impact our big family trip next summer...

the more i read, the more concerned i become...

this is from the CDC website with regards to the olympics in rio...
i assume it is true about any area with zika:

• Women who are pregnant:
  • Do not go to the Olympics.
  • If you must go, talk to your doctor or other health care provider first; strictly followsteps to prevent mosquito bites and use condoms or do not have sex during your trip.
  • If you have a male partner who goes to the Olympics, either use condoms or do not have sex (vaginal, anal, or oral) during your pregnancy.
• Women who are trying to become pregnant:
  • Before you or your male partner travel, talk to your doctor or other health care provider about your plans to become pregnant and the risk of Zika virus infection.
  • See CDC guidance for how long you should wait to try to get pregnant after travel to areas with Zika.
  • You and your male partner should strictly follow steps to prevent mosquito bites.
• Men who go to the Olympics and have a pregnant partner should use condoms or not have sex (vaginal, anal, or oral) during the pregnancy.

and the CDC guidelines for avoiding mosquito bites are completely impossible when traveling in the inferno heat of a florida summer...
they recommend long sleeves, long pants, in addition to insect repellent...how is that even possible in florida in the summer???

At 57 and way past that point in my life I can't begin to imagine what my response would have been if we had been given this information back in the late 1980s. We did travel to Kos on holiday in July 1986 just after the Chernobyl disaster when I was three months pregnant and went to great lengths to make sure I didn't consume any dairy products where local sheep or cows could have grazed in land that might have been affected by wind driven fall out. I have a friend at work who cancelled the Orlando trip that he and his wife had planned for the beginning of July when his wife discovered she was pregnant in May as they weren't prepared to take a risk. The life long ramifications of a mosquito bite from an infected insect just don't bear thinking about if you are or become pregnant while infected. Having said that the 4 cases that have been reported are in the Miami area which is some considerable distance from the theme parks in Orlando and the authorities will be making every possible effort to contain any outbreak I'm sure. Only time will tell how successful they are. I would certainly be avoiding Brazil and the Olympics though.

Mrs TT

If I were pregnant or trying to become pregnant I would be avoiding Brazil and Puerto Rico as well and any other areas where it is epidemic. VERY SCARY! A vacation is certainly NOT WORTH the risk of a health crisis and your unborn child's lifetime of hopefully good health.

I am planning to go to florida next year in October as me and my partners last trip before trying for a baby.

What will this mean for me

Florida is a big state..... Orlando is a very different to Miami where they have had the problem. These problems tend to happen in the poorer areas.... Just like every year in California the Nile Virus is a problem.

Obviously keep an eye on things.... We are just back from WDW and this news story is over a week old. No new outbreaks have been indentified since the story first broke.

I have zero concerns about visiting Disney

samx57 said:

I am planning to go to florida next year in October as me and my partners last trip before trying for a baby.

What will this mean for me

Click to expand...

You really need to check the advice being given nearer the time. Things could be completely different by this time next year never mind October. At the moment, pregnant women are being advised by Public Health England to consider postponing non-essential trips to the US state of Florida, amid concerns over the Zika virus. The advice was updated after Florida confirmed four cases of the virus transmitted by local mosquitoes in the Dade County/Miami area. Previous cases had all been contracted overseas. Florida is rated as being a moderate risk area. Others are high (Central and South America, the Caribbean) and the advice for these countries is to postpone and not merely to consider postponing. At the moment it is also thought that if you plan to become pregnant and have no symptoms upon your return you should avoid becoming pregnant for 8 weeks. If you have symptoms pregnancy should be avoided for 6 months. As the virus can be transmitted through sexual contact the advice applies to both men and women. If you had a holiday planned soon it would be up to you whether or not you took the risk or not. A holiday next October is a different matter. The advice could well have changed by then. At this time of the year (July/August) the wet spell means there are more pools of standing water (very often only puddles) - exactly the conditions mosquitoes love. The result is that all mosquitoes are more active and so you are more open to not just Zika but Dengue fever amongst others as well. The advice for a holiday in October when the weather is drier could well be very different. The advice is always to avoid mosquito bites if at all possible by covering up and using insect repellant.

Mrs TT

Tony Toon said:

You really need to check the advice being given nearer the time. Things could be completely different by this time next year never mind October. At the moment, pregnant women are being advised by Public Health England to consider postponing non-essential trips to the US state of Florida, amid concerns over the Zika virus. The advice was updated after Florida confirmed four cases of the virus transmitted by local mosquitoes in the Dade County/Miami area. Previous cases had all been contracted overseas. Florida is rated as being a moderate risk area. Others are high (Central and South America, the Caribbean) and the advice for these countries is to postpone and not merely to consider postponing. At the moment it is also thought that if you plan to become pregnant and have no symptoms upon your return you should avoid becoming pregnant for 8 weeks. If you have symptoms pregnancy should be avoided for 6 months. As the virus can be transmitted through sexual contact the advice applies to both men and women. If you had a holiday planned soon it would be up to you whether or not you took the risk or not. A holiday next October is a different matter. The advice could well have changed by then. At this time of the year (July/August) the wet spell means there are more pools of standing water (very often only puddles) - exactly the conditions mosquitoes love. The result is that all mosquitoes are more active and so you are more open to not just Zika but Dengue fever amongst others as well. The advice for a holiday in October when the weather is drier could well be very different. The advice is always to avoid mosquito bites if at all possible by covering up and using insect repellant.

Mrs TT

Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply

The population/abundance of these mosquitos like all mosquitos is greatly impacted by seasonal temperatures and conditions. That said, central and south Florida never really have mosquitos go away like the Midwest and northeast. I was curious about this so I looked it up. The linked study below shows that the prevalence of these Zika carrying mosquitos is super high through October, barely drop in November, then seem to be less but certainly not gone in December-March. Most of the rest of the country, they go away completely during December-March, but not central and south Florida. The risk will be "less" then but never zero. Short of a vaccine, this risk is not going away anytime soon. I don't want to be alarmist, but I doubt this is going to be a one season problem. Mosquitos are impossible to eradicate.

This is really going to hit attendance at Disney and every other theme park and vacation destination, beach, resort in the southeast hard from now until a vaccine or other medicine is developed.

It concerns me and we are not even planning on having any more children.

http://currents.plos.org/outbreaks/...edes-aegypti-in-the-contiguous-united-states/

Disney already does a lot to keep down the prevalence of mosquitoes down so I think if you're just travelling to the World a good quality bug spray will be sufficient especially if you think of it like sun cream where you make sure you don't miss a spot. But everyone is different so it's up to each individual on how they want to handle the risk. I'm nowhere near the position of possibly becoming pregnant so I can't say how I would feel if I were and wanted to travel to Florida.

I don't know if Zika will necessary cut tourist numbers or whether it will just shift them away from the summer to the winter months instead because there is less perceived risk.

I would say go with whatever the professional advice is. It's really not worth the risk if they say don't go and whilst unlikely you would never forgive yourself if anything happened.Save your cash and take the kids when they are born(I thoroughly recommend taking toddlers).

I think it's easy to say cancel and not take the risk if you haven't spent the hard earned money, countless hours planning and getting excited about the trip. Me and my wife are heading on a Disney Cruise followed by two weeks at Disney World for our Honeymoon at the end of this month and there is no way we would consider cancelling. I'm saying this from the perspective of not planning on having kids soon but certainly in the future so I understand the warnings for those who are pregnant or planning but there is a lot more that goes into a Disney holiday than your two weeks in the Med type holiday.

This is a situation where a one size fits all process does not work, i'll be going on my trip and enjoying every minute and make sure I get an appointment with my doc once back in the country! I for one am bored of the scaremongering the press puts out every day of the week anyways!

leebez10 said:

I think it's easy to say cancel and not take the risk if you haven't spent the hard earned money, countless hours planning and getting excited about the trip. Me and my wife are heading on a Disney Cruise followed by two weeks at Disney World for our Honeymoon at the end of this month and there is no way we would consider cancelling. I'm saying this from the perspective of not planning on having kids soon but certainly in the future so I understand the warnings for those who are pregnant or planning but there is a lot more that goes into a Disney holiday than your two weeks in the Med type holiday.

This is a situation where a one size fits all process does not work, i'll be going on my trip and enjoying every minute and make sure I get an appointment with my doc once back in the country! I for one am bored of the scaremongering the press puts out every day of the week anyways!

Click to expand...

I certainly don't think anyone Doctor would advise you not to go.

Have a great time and congratulations!

Make sure you don't try and conceive for at least 6 months as it apparently hangs around in the bloke for that long. Also must not have unprotected sex for 6 months. If you did have it you could technically still pass it on at 6 months.
Personally I don't think they know enough about it so I'd give it at least 12 if there is any chance your wife could conceive. Last thing you would want is a baby with a brain defect.
Problem is if you did get it you'd likely not have any symptoms so wouldn't know. Additionally I doubt the cash strapped NHS would order expensive Zika testing just because you had been to Florida so your kind of playing Russian Roulette if your wife gets pregnant.
I think the Zika now has a hold in Florida and may have reached hundreds of infections already (vast majority have no symptoms or just think it is a cold etc) and will go on to infect thousands. They cannot eradicate the mosquito and every time it bites an infected person, then another, it passes it on.

Wakey said:

Make sure you don't try and conceive for at least 6 months as it apparently hangs around in the bloke for that long. Also must not have unprotected sex for 6 months. If you did have it you could technically still pass it on at 6 months.
Personally I don't think they know enough about it so I'd give it at least 12 if there is any chance your wife could conceive. Last thing you would want is a baby with a brain defect.
Problem is if you did get it you'd likely not have any symptoms so wouldn't know. Additionally I doubt the cash strapped NHS would order expensive Zika testing just because you had been to Florida so your kind of playing Russian Roulette if your wife gets pregnant.
I think the Zika now has a hold in Florida and may have reached hundreds of infections already (vast majority have no symptoms or just think it is a cold etc) and will go on to infect thousands. They cannot eradicate the mosquito and every time it bites an infected person, then another, it passes it on.

Click to expand...

I take all your points on board but for every article I've read I've also read others saying that it's rare that it would come to that. If I were being offered a refund then it's something I would have to consider but with refunds only being offered to pregnant women at the current time it's ether go or waste thousands of pounds.

I'm educating myself on it so I know what to look out for and how we can avoid it but easy to say not go when you haven't got an impending trip

leebez10 said:

I take all your points on board but for every article I've read I've also read others saying that it's rare that it would come to that. If I were being offered a refund then it's something I would have to consider but with refunds only being offered to pregnant women at the current time it's ether go or waste thousands of pounds.

I'm educating myself on it so I know what to look out for and how we can avoid it but easy to say not go when you haven't got an impending trip

Click to expand...

I'm not suggesting don't go- I'm suggesting don't conceive for 6 months at least if you do.

Appreciate the dilemma, sorry not trying to worry you but just speaking facts. I am really concerned we are going to see some Florida tourists have babies with brain defects because its a nasty hidden virus.

You can't really look out for it. Best thing you can do is stay away from vegetative areas and parks/ woods/ swamps (I mean real parks not Disney parks) and spray yourself with 97% deet. Get it off Amazon.

Maybe if you would consider something else call the travel Co and tell them you are or will be possibly trying for a baby and Public Health England have said not to go and the virus remains in the system for 6 months and you simply cannot have it put on hold for 6+ months and are they going to be responsible for a life of care if something goes wrong? I think they'd probably swap your holiday as they now have the PHE warning and owe a duty of care.

Anyway good luck. Luckily we are not having any more kids and my daughter is only 12 but if we were trying I'd certainly be looking at cancelling.

no need for 97% deet..
25% deet is plenty strong..

deep woods off has deet and works well...

i'll post the consumer reports review in a moment..i have to go find it..

here is the mosquito repellent review from consumer reports...normally, you have to pay membership for their reviews, but they considered this a public health emergency so they released it to the public:

http://www.consumerreports.org/insect-repellents/mosquito-repellents-that-best-protect-against-zika/


the following excerpt is from the above link:
The Most Effective Insect Repellents
To find the most effective mosquito repellents, we tested products containing a variety of ingredients, including deet, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus, chemicals called IR3535 and 2-undecanone, as well as a variety of plant oils, such as cedar, citronella, geraniol, lemongrass, and rosemary.

The most effective products against Aedes mosquitoes were Sawyer Picaridin and Natrapel 8 Hour, which each contain 20 percent picaridin, and Off! Deepwoods VIII, which contains 25 percent deet. They kept the mosquitoes from biting for about 8 hours. (The Sawyer product was our top insect repellent overall. It was the only one that also kept Culex mosquitoes, which can spread West Nile disease, and deer ticks, which can spread Lyme disease, away for at least 8 hours.)

Ben's 30% DEET Tick & Insect Wilderness Formula kept Aedes mosquitoes away for 7.5 hours and Repel Lemon Eucalyptus, containing 30 percent lemon eucalyptus, stopped them for 7 hours.

The IR3535 products didn’t make our list of recommended sprays. Neither did repellents with 2-Undecananone or those that contained 7 percent deet or less than 20 percent picaridin.

We advise skipping most products made with natural plant oils, such as California Baby Natural Bug Blend (a blend of citronella, lemongrass oil, cedar oil, and other ingredients) and EcoSmart Organic, (which includes geraniol, rosemary oil, cinnamon oil, and lemongrass oil). They did not last for more than 1 hour against Aedes mosquitoes, and some failed almost immediately.

In addition, those products are not registered by the Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates skin-applied repellents and evaluates them for safety and effectiveness. Most plant-oil products are exempt from scrutiny by the EPA because the agency considers them to be a minimum risk to human health.

Instead, the CDC recommends using EPA-registered insect repellents. To see if a mosquito repellent is registered by the EPA, look for its registration number ("EPA Reg.") on the back of the label.

The Best Way to Use Mosquito Repellent
Insect repellents that use deet come in varying concentrations, ranging from 4 percent to 100 percent. Our previous tests show that concentrations of 30 percent provide the same protection against mosquitoes as higher percentages for up to 8 hours. But higher concentrations of deet have been linked to rashes, disorientation, and seizures. That’s why Consumer Reports says you should avoid mosquito repellents with more than 30 percent deet and not use it at all on infants younger than 2 months.

Women who are pregnant or breast feeding can safely use deet, picaridin, lemon eucalyptus, and IR3535, according to the EPA, if they are applied properly. Here are tips from the EPA on how to use insect repellent:

• Apply repellents only to exposed skin or clothing—never put it on under clothing. Use just enough to cover and only for as long as needed; heavy doses don’t work better.
• Don’t apply mosquito repellents over cuts, wounds, or irritated skin or immediately after shaving.
• When applying to your face, spray first on your hands, then rub in, avoiding your eyes and mouth, and using sparingly around ears.
• Don’t let young children apply. Instead, put it on your own hands, then rub it on. Limit use on children’s hands, because they often put their hands in their eyes and mouths.
• Don’t use near food, and wash hands after application and before eating or drinking.
• At the end of the day, wash treated skin with soap and water, and wash treated clothing in a separate wash before wearing again.

Check our mosquito repellent Ratings.


..