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Zika infection in a pregnant woman — even without symptoms of the disease — can lead to miscarriages or birth defects, U.S. health officials warned, adding such patients to official counts of the disease’s spread.
The change in how the U.S. CDC reports Zika infections in pregnant women raises the total number of reported cases from 112 to 279 in U.S. states and territories. Four recent scientific reports drove the change, finding evidence of Zika infections in newborns or fetuses even though their mothers hadn’t reported any virus symptoms, such as a rash, fever, or red eyes.
Only about 1 in 5 people infected with Zika reports symptoms. But about half, 49%, of the 157 pregnant women in the updated report with Zika in states had symptoms. That may indicate some asymptomatic pregnant women have escaped reporting, Denise Jamieson of the CDC suggested on the briefing call, pointing to widespread testing in pregnant women travelers without symptoms only starting around February.
Read full, original post: CDC Widens Warnings About Zika And Pregnancy
