According to The Center of Disease Control and Prevention, since August 257 women have been tested for the virus. “For a US, it unequivocally is a domain that is going to have a many infections”, pronounced Steve Waterman, conduct of a CDC’s dengue bend in Puerto Rico. Such cases have been studied at length in Brazil.
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Though the link between Zika and microcephaly is questionable, “the evidence for this is getting stronger by the day”, CDC Director Tom Frieden told reporters on a conference call.
“The Zika outbreak in Brazil is dynamic”, states the CDC warning, which covers both pregnant women and those who are actively trying to conceive.
Brazil, on the other hand, has confirmed more than 580 cases of microcephaly, a rare birth defect characterized by small heads and a potentially underlying brain damage. The other woman is still pregnant. Two of the women infected in the first trimester suffered miscarriages. Of the 9 pregnancies total across the USA in mothers with the virus, 2 have had miscarriages, 2 chose to have abortions, 2 gave birth to healthy babies, and 2 are continuing with their pregnancies. The remaining two women who are under observation have not given birth yet. Now, according to the CDC, mosquitoes in 29 countries south of Florida and Texas are spreading the virus. Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the virus actually causes microcephaly, a condition marked by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems.
Zika has confounded researchers at every turn. While it certainly promises to be a useful tool in the Zika fight, it is not the diagnostic panacea that many public health officials have been hoping for.
The CDC recommends pregnant women and their male sex partners discuss the male partner’s potential exposures and history of Zika-like illness with the woman’s health care provider. “The big challenge right now is we don’t have any interventions”, Beigi said. Over half of all Florida Zika virus cases (19 out of 37) have been located in those two counties. But that doesn’t mean that the baby does not deserve a chance to live.
Unlike some chromosomal issues that can be detected in the womb with a very high degree of certainty, a child’s long-term trajectory can be less clear-cut with microcephaly. Musser said the Ebola crisis in Dallas and the spread of other tropical disease, such as chikungunya, that have moved up from the southern hemisphere in recent years underscored the fact that Texas is on the front lines of this fight.
“If somebody has gone six weeks, we think they’re in the clear and they could go ahead and seek pregnancy again”, he said.
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These cases have prompted health officials to take cautionary steps to protect fetuses.
