If
you're pregnant—or trying to conceive—the Zika virus is probably a
top-of-mind concern right now, and with good reason: This mosquito-borne
virus is dominating headlines with its scary multi-country advance and
potentially devastating consequences for pregnant women and their
babies.
Zika
surfaced just over a year ago in South America, and Brazil has been
disproportionately affected, with thousands of babies suffering severe
birth defects, including brain damage, in utero when their mothers
contracted the virus. But it has now spread to more than three dozen
countries and territories in the Americas, and has recently landed in
the United States (although it's important to note that these U.S. cases
were brought by returning travelers from affected regions). According
to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 168 pregnant
women in the US and the District of Columbia have been diagnosed with
Zika and another 142 have been identified in the US territories, which
includes the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
Per the CDC, mosquitoes in the continental United States or Hawaii have not
spread Zika. However, lab tests have confirmed Zika virus in travelers
returning to the United States. These travelers have gotten the virus
from mosquito bites and some non-travelers got Zika through sex with a
traveler. Cases of local transmission have been confirmed in three US
territories: Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and American Samoa.
The
virus is likely to spread further, according to the World Health
Organization (WHO), because the mosquito that transmits Zika is in all
but two countries of the Americas, and the people in these regions lack
immunity to the virus.
