In the continental United States, 157 pregnant women have tested positive in a lab test that indicates they probably have the mosquito-borne virus, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today, plus another 122 in US territories such as Puerto Rico.
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As of May 12, the two USA registries were monitoring 157 pregnant women in the United States and 122 pregnant women in us territories who have laboratory evidence of possible Zika infection, CDC officials said.
Fewer than a dozen of the infected women in the US and Puerto Rico have had miscarriages or babies born with birth defects, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
Previously, officials had reported how many pregnant women had both Zika symptoms and positive blood tests. Most people who get a Zika virus infection do not have symptoms.
Since February, the CDC has monitored USA pregnant women infected with the Zika virus. There are now 157 pregnant women infected in 50 states, and another 122 in USA territories, according to the CDC.
Including the two pregnant women, Washington state now has four cases of the Zika virus, which has the potential to cause birth defects.
“The CDC’s top priority in the Zika response is protecting pregnant women and their fetuses”, Honein said.
There has been a sharp uptick in Zika births in several Latin American countries such as Brazil and Columbia.
In the meantime, the CDC has been working with state and territorial health departments to monitor pregnant women with any Zika exposure. That’s in addition to more than 120 women affected by Zika in USA territories, mainly Puerto Rico.
Originally found in Africa in the 1950s, it wasn’t until the recent outbreak in Brazil and the possible link to birth defects that the Zika virus became an global issue. As of Wednesday, none of the cases in the mainland were caused by local mosquitoes, and instead involved people who had recently traveled to Zika-prone areas. “At our southwest clinic, we see 300 pregnant women a day, a lot of them do travel at some point to Latin America”.
How many adverse outcomes of pregnancy have been reported?
“I mean I’ve been at the CDC for 20 years, and I’ve never been involved with something that evolved so quickly”, says Dr. Jamieson. The Senate has approved $1.1 billion; the House has approved $622 million.
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Margaret Honein of the CDC told PBS that only two studies have addressed how many infants who are exposed to Zika will have good or bad outcomes, and “their results vary dramatically”.
