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Alarming headlines have been circulating about Zika for more than a year now. But beyond the confirmation that the mosquito-spread virus can cause unborn babies to develop brain damage and microcephaly?a condition in which an infant?s head is much smaller than expected?there hasn?t been much information about how common Zika-related complications are for pregnant women and their babies. Now, a new study is reporting that one in 10 women in the United States who were infected with the Zika virus while pregnant had deformities, including microcephaly, in their babies or fetuses.
The study, which was conducted by researchers with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that out of 250 women in America who had definitive Zika diagnoses, 24 of their infants suffered birth defects because of the virus. These women were tracked in a larger pool of almost 1,000 pregnant women who had some signs of Zika. Because Zika testing is only valid within the first few weeks of contracting the illness, definitive stats couldn?t be taken from this larger group, though about five percent of infants and fetuses from those 1,000 women had Zika-related defects. Questions still remain around when fetuses are most vulnerable, but this study suggests the risk might be higher while women are in the first trimester of pregnancy. Among women who contracted Zika during that period, defects appeared in 15 percent of babies.
Defects caused by Zika can include everything ...