Some Pregnant Women in US Should Be Tested for Zika Virus: CDC

Pregnant women also should be tested for Zika virus if they have traveled to an area with Zika virus transmission and they have an ultrasound that shows microcephaly, a birth defect in which the baby’s head is abnormally small.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Zika is a second category notifiable infectious disease, requiring for doctors to report cases within 24 hours.

Texas and Hawaii also have confirmed cases, including a baby born with a birth defect.

The CDC recommended that health care professionals who care for pregnant women ask them about recent travel to the areas with ongoing Zika transmission.

The Colombian government reported Wednesday that so far, there have been 13,531 people affected in the country by the Zika virus, the Associated Press reported. “However, cases of Zika have been reported in returning travelers”, said health department spokesman Donna Leusner.

Brazil’s health officials say they’re convinced the jump is linked to a sudden outbreak of the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne disease similar to dengue, though the mechanics of exactly how the virus affects the babies remain murky. All of the infected people in Florida contracted the virus while out of the country – in either Colombia or Venezuela.

Since October, more than 3,500 cases of microcephaly have been reported in Brazil.

The Zika virus is spread when a mosquito bites an infected person and then bites someone else. However, the illness has been spreading in different Caribbean countries such as Barbados and Haiti, as well as South American countries such as Brazil.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a yellow travel alert late Friday, advising pregnant women to consider postponing travel to Mexico, Puerto Rico and more than a dozen other countries in South America, Central America and the Caribbean where the mosquito-borne Zika virus is circulating. Dr. Cynthia Moore of the CDC told reporters during a conference call last week that it’s hard to predict at birth how the condition will affect a child. The advice includes wearing long sleeves and long trousers and using insect repellent.

In the Colombian port city of Barranquilla, home to Latin America’s largest Carnival outside Brazil, health authorities have been educating residents how to identify symptoms and urging women to put off pregnancies for at least six months until the worst of the epidemic passes. “Our concern is particularly heightened, however, for pregnant women”, he said.