The CDC said on Friday that it was also investigating 10 additional reports of pregnant travelers who had been infected with the Zika virus.
Advertisement
Of the group of nine, two suffered miscarriages, two ended their pregnancies because of brain abnormalities, and one gave birth to a child with microcephaly.
Since August, the CDC has tested 257 pregnant women for Zika; eight were positive, and a state lab confirmed a ninth. Officials there are exploring a possible link to babies born with unusually small heads, a rare birth defect called microcephaly, which can signal underlying brain damage. These cases included both of the miscarriages, both of the terminations and the case of the infant with microcephaly, along with one of the pregnancies that is still continuing, the report said.
The number of USA 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.
The virus causes mild illness or no symptoms in most people.
– Two women had abortions, one after scans showed the fetus had an undeveloped brain. The patient returned to the San Diego area in January, officials said, but she was not hospitalized and has fully recovered.
Brazil is one of thirty places for which the CDC has issued a travel alert.
“There is no immediate threat from Zika if people have not traveled to known affected areas”, said Wilma Wooten, M.D., M.P.H., County public health officer.
While mainland United States has yet to see mosquitoes with the virus, Puerto Rico has 117 known, diagnosed cases of Zika. And unlike the United States, abortion isn’t an option for pregnant women who contract the virus. That’s to prevent mosquitoes from biting them and possibly spreading Zika to others in the U.S. The type of mosquito that spreads Zika is in parts of the South.
So far an increase in microcephaly cases and other neonatal malformations has only been reported in Brazil and French Polynesia.
Zika is caused by a virus spread by the bite of an infected mosquito species that is not found in Montana.
Advertisement
The number of people being investigated for the Zika virus in Bexar County has ballooned from six last Friday to 22 this Friday. The new information underscores the importance of following that advice, said CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden.
