Zika Found in 9 U.S. Pregnancies, Outcomes Often Severe: CDC

Washington, Feb 27 The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advised pregnant women to consider not going to attend this year’s Olympic Games in Brazil where the Zika virus outbreak have caused an increase in birth defects known as microcephaly.

The ninth woman “reported symptoms of Zika virus infection in the third trimester of pregnancy, and she delivered a healthy infant”, said the CDC.

Of the two pregnant women with Zika diagnosed during their second trimester, one gave birth to an apparently healthy baby, and another is still pregnant. Two of the women had abortions after brain images showed abnormalities possibly associated with microcephaly, a birth defect linked to the virus in which newborns have unusually small heads and limited brain development.

The advice was released the same day that the CDC confirmed nine cases of pregnant women with Zika in the USA, and is investigating 10 more.

CDC officials had been tracking nine pregnant women who tested positive for Zika and experienced symptoms such as fever, rash, joint pain or conjunctivitis.

Approximately half a million pregnant women are estimated to travel to the United States annually from the 32 (as of February 18, 2016) Zika-affected countries and US territories with active transmission of Zika virus.

“People who have been in Zika-affected areas in the previous two weeks and develop symptoms suggesting Zika should see their health care provider”.

The unidentified women recently traveled to the Caribbean or South America, where the mosquito-borne virus has been spreading.

A health official in the Argentine province of Cordoba has reported that a woman has contracted the Zika virus without having left the country, bringing to nine the total number of cases reported nationwide.

According to the report, two of these cases are “laboratory-confirmed” and four more are “probable”.

Any link between Zika and pregnancy loss would be harder to prove, because it’s a relatively common event.

The virus is most commonly spread by an infected species of tropical mosquito. There have been more than 5,600 cases of the defect suspected or confirmed in Brazil since last spring when the epidemic began, according to the World Health Organization.

The state continues to encourage current Florida residents or visitors, or people planning to travel to Florida in the near future, to call the hotline with questions about exposure to Zika.

And two more pregnancies are continuing with no reported complications. “The U.S. obstetrics community needs to prepare accordingly”.