ZIKA SEASON
Barcelo Bavaro Grand Resort in Punta Cana , Dominican Republic
ZIKA SEASON
Hilton ' s El San Juan Hotel in Puerto Rico
“ Everyone is waiting now for 2017 to see what the pattern of Zika is ,” says Dr . Anna Durbin , a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the department of international health . Large-scale outbreaks like those in 2016 may continue ; or more people will have developed immunity . “ The expectation is that as the weather gets warmer and mosquitoes start circulating again , we ’ re looking to see if the number of cases of Zika , come May , April , June , will be at the numbers they were in 2016 ,” says Durbin , who has a joint appointment in the school of medicine ’ s department of infectious diseases .
The World Health Organization declared Zika , a mosquito-borne disease that arrived in the Americas in 2015 , a public health emergency in early 2016 . That status was lowered in November ; the agency is focusing on sustained research .
Hotels and resorts in the region have added protocols to protect guests from the virus , which is transmitted via mosquito bite . There are no licensed vaccines yet , although several are in early testing , Durbin says .
“ We have a very high bar of protection that we think we ’ re going to need ,” Durbin says . “ It ’ s still as much of an issue and the same precautions still need to be taken .”
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