Current Health Day : declared in Risk of Birth Defects 20 Times Higher for Zika Moms

To come up with the incidences of birth defects before Zika, the researchers looked at three programs that keep track of birth defects -- in Massachusetts, North Carolina and Georgia. She is chief of the birth defects branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The investigators believe that incidences of birth defects in these three locations are representative of the United States as a whole. "It really emphasizes the devastating effects that Zika virus can have on pregnant women and their babies, and the critical importance of preventing Zika virus infection during pregnancy," she said. To assess the effects of Zika, the study authors compared that baseline number with the number of birth defects among pregnant women with Zika, as listed in the U.S. Zika Pregnancy Registry.

Zika Virus Resulted in More Birth Defects in United States

The CDC researchers analyzed 2013-2014 data from three birth defects surveillance programs in the United States (Massachusetts, North Carolina and Georgia) to provide the baseline frequency for Zika-related birth defects. To assess the effect of Zika virus infection during pregnancy, the scientists compared that 2013-2014 baseline number with previously published numbers among pregnancies with Zika virus infection from the U.S. Zika Pregnancy Registry (USZPR) from 2016. Birth defects in Zika-pregnancies are 20 times higher than before the ZIka epidemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Data from the USZPR identified 26 infants and fetuses with these same birth defects among the 442 completed pregnancies of women with possible Zika infection from January through September 2016. In 2016, the proportion of infants with these same types of birth defects born to women with Zika virus infection during pregnancy was about 6 percent, or nearly 60 of every 1,000 completed pregnancies with Zika infections.


On Thursday, federal health officials released new information that suggests the risk for giving birth to an infant with microcephaly and related birth defects has increased 20-fold since 2013. Next, they looked at figures from the U.S. Zika Pregnancy Registry created by the CDC last year to track birth defects and microcephaly cases caused by Zika. They identified 747 infants and fetuses with one or more birth defects from these registries in the 2013-14 time period. SCOTT MCINTYRE FOR NEWSWEEKTry Newsweek for only $1.25 per weekFor the report, the researchers studied three statewide birth defects surveillance programs in Massachusetts, North Carolina and Georgia. After weighing the data and comparing the figures, they found the risk for giving birth to an infant with birth defects is far more likely than it was before Zika began to spread.


collected by :Sandra Alex
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