Zika infections confirmed in 9 pregnant women in US — CDC

Two U.S. women infected with the Zika virus have opted to abort their pregnancies, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday. All got the virus overseas.

Also on Friday, the CDC issued a caution to people planning to attend the Olympics this summer in Rio de Janeiro. The virus, mainly spread through mosquito bites, causes mild illness or no symptoms in most people.

The CDC also reported that since August it had tested 257 pregnant women for the Zika virus. The CDC says it’s not clear if contracting Zika during the first trimester led to the miscarriages or the microcephaly case. Another two pregnancies are continuing without known complications.

Ten additional cases of potential infection in pregnant women are still under investigation. Details were not provided for the second case.

A Missoula County woman has the state’s first diagnosed case of the Zika virus. That mother had lived in Brazil early in her pregnancy.

“No one is more impatient for answers than we are”, Frieden said.

Those destinations are among the 30 places now on the CDC’s Zika travel alert.

It is especially unsafe for pregnant women. Missoula City/County Health Department officials say that Zika diagnosis was confirmed on Thursday. “So”, said the RN, “if you were to contract it then you could pass it onto your partner, so it’s important to either abstain from sexual activity or to use a condom”. “Testing for the male partners is still pending”, they added. And unlike the United States, abortion isn’t an option for pregnant women who contract the virus. The CDC recommends that pregnant women who do travel to Zika-affected regions be tested after they return, even if they have no symptoms. Over the past year, Zika has spread rapidly throughout South America, and the outbreak has coincided with a huge increase in microcephaly cases.

The CDC has set up a voluntary registry to collect information about Zika-infected women and their babies.

Research also is underway into a possible link between Zika and a paralyzing condition in adults called Guillain-Barre.

John Armstrong reported two new confirmed cases. Separate from those cases, researchers have confirmed that six women in the USA have contracted the virus through sexual contact with males who had recently traveled to places where the virus is active.

The number of US women who have become infected by the Zika virus through sexual intercourse has risen to three – a reality that will complicate efforts to control the spread of the disease, which typically is transmitted through mosquitoes.