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By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Sept. 15, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- America's top public health agency could lift its Zika virus travel advisory for the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami as early as Monday, officials said Thursday afternoon.
"Barring any new local transmissions in the affected area, we are expecting to be able to update guidance early next week," Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a media briefing.
Since early August, the CDC has urged pregnant women to avoid travel to the Wynwood neighborhood, based on evidence that mosquitoes had been actively transmitting Zika from person to person.
Zika is the first mosquito-borne virus known to cause terrible birth defects, most of them brain-related. The most common one is microcephaly, in which a child is born with an abnormally small brain and skull.
In other news, Congressional aides say Republicans are proposing to drop a restriction on Zika response money for Planned Parenthood that has held up release of at least $1.1 billion to fight the mosquito-borne disease, according to the Associated Press.
Democrats have opposed the funding restriction on Planned Parenthood, which would have kept Zika money in Puerto Rico from being distributed to some clinics associated with Planned Parenthood. Republicans were trying to circumvent Planned Parenthood because of its abortion services.
If a deal is reached, Zika response funding would be added to must-pass legislation intended to prevent a federal government shutdown this fall, the AP reported.
President Barack Obama in February asked Congress for $1.9 billion in emergency spending to fight Zika.
The Wynwood travel advisory constituted the first time the CDC ever warned people to avoid an American neighborhood due to an active infectious outbreak.
The potential lifting of the travel advisory came up during remarks by Owen Bale, director of the R House Restaurant in Wynwood, who discussed how being in the so-called "Zika zone" has harmed his business.
"We understand the travel advisory designation for Wynwood could be lifted this coming Monday, which is wonderful news," Bale said. "But business levels are returning to normal at an incredibly slow pace."