Jannelissa Santana, that was 37 weeks pregnant, at a public hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in February. (Reuters/Alvin Baez)
The Centers for Illness Regulate and Prevention said Friday that it is monitoring 279 pregnant women along with most likely Zika virus infections across U.S. states and territories. The largest variety of cases by far are in Puerto Rico, where officials are sustaining tabs on 122 pregnant women. Yet they additionally are tracking 157 various other pregnant women across the country.
“One challenge of this Zika virus outbreak is the lack of learning of the magnitude of risk and the spectrum of outcomes associated along with Zika virus infection throughout pregnancy,” researchers wrote in a report published Friday. The surveillance effort, they noted, is expected to modification that, “raise risk assessment and counseling of pregnant women and families, get there clinical care, and help states and territories to expect and strategy called for resources and raise prevention efforts.”
The report does not detail the outcomes of any sort of pregnancies currently being monitored Yet says that article “will certainly be shared in future reports.” Researchers said the agency will certainly start posting a weekly update on the variety of cases being watched.
[CDC says microcephaly could be “tip of the iceberg” of brain, developmental problems]
CDC has actually concluded that there is little doubt the mosquito-borne virus can easily create pregnancy complications and serious fetal abnormalities, also as some neurological complications in adults. The many pronounced in utero is microcephaly, a rare condition marked by an abnormally small head and a lack of brain development. Hundreds of babies along with that devastating condition currently have actually been born in countries such as Columbia and Brazil, where the latest Zika outbreak began last year.
Everything you ever wanted to understand concerning the Zika virus and its spread across North and South America. (Daron Taylor,Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post)
The Illness has actually due to the fact that spread to dozens of countries and island territories, primarily in South and Central America, also as the Caribbean. The escalating numbers have actually prompted the CDC to urge pregnant women in particular to stay clear of taking a trip to Zika-damaged areas.
Earlier this month, Puerto Rico reported its initial Zika-related microcephaly case. A health department statement referred to a male fetus that showed “serious microcephaly and calcifications in the brain accompanied by Zika-wide presence of the virus.” It said the case was detected early through “robust surveillance systems,” along with the abnormalities identified via ultrasound. healthiness Secretary Ana Rius told reporters in San Juan that the fetus had been turned over to U.S. healthiness officials for testing. She declined to say whether the woman involved had an abortion or miscarried.
In late February, the CDC reported that at least two pregnant women in the United States infected along with the Zika virus had selected to have actually abortions, while two others had experienced miscarriages. One woman gave birth to an infant along with serious birth defects, while two others delivered healthy and balanced infants.
At the time, the agency was making two surveillance units in conjunction along with state and regional healthiness officials — one to monitor people specifically in Puerto Rico, where the virus currently was spreading rapidly, and yet another to monitor cases in the rest of the United States.
With summer temperatures nearly here, U.S. healthiness officials have actually been warning concerning expected regional outbreaks of the virus in states, particularly in the South and the Southwest. The two regions are house to the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the primary vector for the virus.
Countries such as El Salvador and Jamaica have actually actually urged women to postpone pregnancy.
President Obama is scheduled to receive an Oval Office briefing late Friday morning concerning the country’s Zika planning from CDC director Tom Frieden, healthiness and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Friday’s news additionally comes amid the most recent push in Congress for a lot more resources to intend for and combat the spread of Zika domestically. On Thursday, the Senate approved $1.1 billion in emergency funding, substantially a lot more compared to the $622 million funding package the Estate approved a day earlier — in portion by using cash set aside for Ebola.
The White House, which in February requested $1.9 billion for its Zika response, called the House’s measure “woefully inadequate.”
As of this week, the United States had 544 reported cases of Zika, nearly every one of them involving people that had traveled to countries currently plagued by the virus. A handful of infections have actually been sexually transmitted, Yet none has actually yet been acquired from mosquitoes in this country. In addition, there have actually been a lot more compared to 800 Zika cases in U.S. territories, the vast majority of those in Puerto Rico, where regional transmissions through mosquitoes have actually been common.
Read more:
Why the United States is so vulnerable to the alarming spread of Zika virus
Zika has actually pregnant women in the U.S. worried, and doctors have actually couple of answers
CDC confirms Zika virus sets off microcephaly, various other birth defects
The agonizing wait of an expectant mother along with Zika: ‘Is my baby okay?’
