Zika birth defects likely going underreported stat : WTOP

WASHINGTON — The Zika virus causes birth defects in about one in 10 pregnancies of women who are infected, but it's likely the numbers are higher, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some fetuses infected with Zika have an obvious defect: microcephaly (an abnormally small head due to the destruction of brain tissue). Like WTOP on Facebook and follow @WTOP on Twitter to engage in conversation about this article and others. "What we're hoping for is that when we get a vaccine that's effective that we'll avoid all of this," Faucci said. Last year, pregnant women in 44 U.S. states showed evidence of Zika.




--Among pregnant women with confirmed Zika infections, about 1 in 10 had a fetus or baby with birth defects. These estimates are higher than what U.S. health officials have previously reported and underscore the serious risk for birth defects posed by Zika virus infection during pregnancy. --About 1 in 3 babies with possible Zika infection had no report of Zika testing at birth. Confirmed infections in the first trimester posed the highest risk - with about 15 percent having Zika-related birth defects. --Of the 972 pregnancies that were completed by the end of the year, more than 50 had Zika-related birth defects.


The study also showed that three out of four babies exposed to Zika had not received brain imaging after birth to diagnose birth defects. Because of limitations of testing, only tests done within the first few weeks of Zika can test specifically for the Zika virus. The researchers analyzed data on nearly 1,000 completed pregnancies in 2016 among women who had some evidence of Zika infection. "We know that some babies have underlying brain defects that are otherwise not evident at birth. (Photo: AP)About one in 10 pregnant women with confirmed Zika infections had a fetus or baby with birth defects, offering the clearest picture yet of the risk of Zika infection during pregnancy, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.


collected by :Lucy William

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