THIS IS SHAPING UP TO BE A REAL DEBACLE FOR SOUTH FLORIDA: Pregnant Women Advised to Avoid Travel to Active Zika Zone in Miami Beach.

With the Zika virus spreading to Miami Beach, federal health officials on Friday advised pregnant women not to visit a 20-block stretch of one of the country’s most alluring tourist destinations. They also told them to consider postponing travel anywhere in Miami-Dade County.

The escalation of the Zika crisis here sent tremors through South Florida’s vibrant tourist industry and stoked the fears of pregnant women, worried about the virus’s ability to cause severe brain damage in newborn babies.

The travel advisory from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was prompted by the discovery of a second zone of local Zika transmission in an area between Eighth and 28th Streets in Miami Beach that includes the heart of South Beach, a tourist mecca. Officials said five people, including travelers from New York, Texas and Taiwan, were infected there. The other area where mosquitoes are spreading the virus is in the Miami neighborhood of Wynwood, a hip, gentrifying arts district.

The impact will be worse, of course, on the many Caribbean islands where tourism is the main source of foreign exchange.