They found no notable increases in abortion requests in countries with local Zika outbreak but without advisories as well as in countries where the virus is not transmitting.
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The percentage-increase may be impressive, but the actual number of women attaining the pill from WoW remains relatively small: The New York Times puts the number at slightly more than 2,300 in the region, with only 1,600 in countries where warnings about Zika’s devastating effects were issued.
The Chester County Health Department also urged pregnant women to not visit Zika-affected countries and areas.
Aiken and colleagues analyzed requests for abortion services from Women on Web, a nonprofit that provides access to the abortion medications mifepristone and misoprostol, as well as online consultations to women in countries where legal abortion is limited.
They analysed the website between January 2010 and March 2016 in 19 Latin-American countries, to assess whether requests for abortion increased beyond expected trends following the Pan American Health Organisation alert. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reporting that in USA states and the District of Columbia there are 755 travel-associated Zika virus cases, another 12 Zika cases acquired through sexual transmission, and no cases locally acquired through bites from infected mosquitoes.
Officials in Lucas County are “increasing mosquito assessment and control measures in the area” to reduce the risk of spreading the virus, according to the release.
“Women wanting to postpone pregnancy should have access to a comprehensive range of reversible, long- or short-acting contraceptive options”. Frank Esper, a pediatric infectious disease physician at University Hospital at Case Medical Center in Cleveland, told ABC News.
“Numbers will rise and will be directly proportionate to those who travel to South and Central American countries, and especially to Puerto Rico”, said Dr. Robert Ball, a health professor at the College of Charleston and at the Medical University of SC.
“Some of the emails that came in were heartbreaking”, said Dr. Abigail R.A. Aiken, lead author of the study and researcher at the University of Texas, Austin. She said the figures presented in the study could be an early warning sign of more demand for abortion due to the Zika alert.
Microsoft researcher Ethan Jackson, who heads up the project, said his team treats the mosquito as a means to collect blood from animals and humans. On the one hand, authorities were saying Zika is such a major health threat a woman shouldn’t even get pregnant. The woman was not hospitalized and has recovered.
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As of June 9, the CDC reported 239 pregnant cases of Zika virus. Also, no cases have been contracted in the state itself.
