Zika Spreading Rapidly Through Puerto Rico: CDC

If pregnant women contract the virus, however, their babies are at risk of developing a range of birth defects, including microcephaly, vision problems, and brain damage, according to The Washington Post.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began reporting Zika-related birth defects in the United States to include live-born infants and pregnancy losses.

“In the coming months, it is possible that thousands of pregnant women in Puerto Rico may be infected with Zika”, Frieden told reporters today. Many of those pregnancies are continuing, and the new statistics don’t include any Zika infections in US territories such as Puerto Rico.

In Brazil, authorities have confirmed more than 1,400 cases of microcephaly in babies whose mothers were exposed to Zika during pregnancy.

While the women had Zika infections, the officials said they did not know whether the birth defects were caused by the virus or other factors.

Zika has caused alarm throughout the Americas since cases of the birth defect microcephaly were reported in Brazil, the country hardest hit by the outbreak.

The blood test used in the United States to detect the virus was developed by Swiss drug giant Roche, and got Food and Drug Administration approval in late March.

They also confirmed 113 cases of dengue and 75 of chikungunya, so those viruses, both relatives of Zika, are also circulating. As a result of these increasing infection rates a pregnant woman would have a “significant” risk of contracting the virus in Puerto Rico, Frieden said. With a larger number of women affected, mothers’ interest in Zika is spiking, leading to questions about how the virus might affect them and their children – even after birth.

“With chikungunya, about a quarter of the population became infected in less than a year”, Frieden said.

If the Zika virus starts to spread within the US, blood centers could quickly take measures to safeguard the blood supply from spreading the Zika virus, Frieden said.

In the United States, the CDC has refrained from recommending that couples delay pregnancy in Zika-affected areas. All the cases reported in the USA have been connected to travel to outbreak areas. Arizona is home to one of the Aedes species of mosquitoes that spread the Zika virus.

President Barack Obama has asked Congress to allocate $1.9 billion to combat the Zika threat, but lawmakers have yet to agree on a spending package.