Worry rises Zika fight enters 3rd ‘hot zone’

MIAMI — Mosquitoes bite everyone, not just Haitians.

It’s a point health educator Marie-Jose Ledan is sure to make when she approaches Little Haiti’s churches, laundromats and mom-and-pop businesses about protecting people from the Zika virus.

That seems obvious, but many in Miami’s newest Zika “hot zone” bitterly remember what happened the last time health officials linked a devastating virus to this community: Discrimination and recrimination against Haitians continued for years after the federal government wrongly listed being Haitian as a risk factor for HIV and AIDS.

“That’s why we have to be careful so our sisters and brothers do not think they are targeted, just like with the AIDS virus,” said Ledan, who has been distributing educational materials about Zika in Little Haiti over the last two months.

Authorities in Florida went into damage-control mode when Zikacarrying mosquitoes began biting in the Miami area this summer.

Many feared that the economy would suffer as pregnant women were warned to avoid the Wynwood art district and touristy South Beach.

With those areas cleared, some fear this third “hot zone” is getting less attention. It straddles the city’s poorest communities, heavily black Little Haiti and Liberty City. Here, Zika joins a long list of concerns among people who already feel neglected and tend to mistrust authorities. Advocates say containing its spread here will take finesse.

Most of the same aggressive tactics deployed against mosquitoes in the other two areas are being used here as well: Inspectors are making thousands of house calls, trucks are spraying pesticides before dawn and tropical plants that trap water where mosquitoes breed will be pulled from city-owned spaces.

But there are no plans for the type of aerial spraying done in the other two neighborhoods.

The county’s mayor said last week that it isn’t necessary because the number of Zika-carrying mosquitoes caught in traps hasn’t been alarmingly high.

Still, people in these neighborhoods suspect they’re being shortchanged, and organizers are concerned that poor women won’t get the help they need.

Activists also felt slighted when the governor and county mayor called this zone “the Little River area,” using a historical name for an overlapping neighborhood even though the City Commission in May recognized that the name “Little Haiti” is as culturally important to Miami as the more widely known “Little Havana.”

“We have to be very careful in talking, to send the right message,” Ledan said.

On Wednesday, Florida health officials linked an eighth Zika infection to this latest “hot zone.”

It’s not known whether any of these people are pregnant, but high-risk pregnancies and infant mortality rates are already higher in the area without the threat of Zika-related birth defects, said Manuel Fermin, CEO of the Healthy Start Coalition of MiamiDade.

“Now we’re adding another major problem,” he said.