Avoid Brazil Olympics because of Zika, US officials caution pregnant women

An Argentine woman has contracted Zika without having left the country, suggesting the virus was sexually transmitted, a health official in Cordoba province said on Friday, bringing to nine the number of cases reported nationwide, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Of the other eight women, two had miscarriages, two aborted their fetuses after MRIs and ultrasounds showed evidence of brain malformation, two had healthy babies, and two other women are still pregnant with apparently healthy babies. Her comment came during a telebriefing on Zika held Friday by the CDC.

In October 2015, Brazilian authorities reported a concerning increase in microcephaly, which has occurred in close sequence to Brazil’s outbreak of the mosquito-borne Zika virus. “If you are pregnant, avoid travel to a place where Zika is spreading”.

The other woman who underwent abortion also contacted the infection during the first trimester of her pregnancy.

Two of the women are reported to have suffered miscarriages.

The nine women in the USA identified to have acquired Zika virus were among the 257 women who requested for Zika virus testing.

As of February 17, CDC had received reports of nine pregnant travelers with laboratory-confirmed Zika virus disease; 10 additional reports of Zika virus disease among pregnant women are now under investigation.

CDC’s statement is the agency’s first explicit warning for some travelers to stay away from the Games in Rio de Janeiro, which has been expecting to draw as many as 400,000 tourists from around the world.

Mexico is one of 35 countries reporting cases of Zika, though none have been in Baja California.

The CDC said the Zika outbreak in Brazil is “dynamic” and that it will continue to monitor the situation and will adjust these recommendations as needed.

Doctors also addressed the issue of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a form of paralysis linked to the virus that can be deadly. “However, its presence in the placenta is certainly suggestive that it may have”, Frieden said. Data on Guillain-Barré has been collected in Brazil, and research on the link with microcephaly is ongoing in both countries.

One, a woman in Hawaii, gave birth to a baby with severe microcephaly.

Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the virus causes microcephaly in babies, a condition defined by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems.

About 80 percent of patients infected with the Zika virus develop no symptoms, and many patients are thus unaware they have been infected with the virus.

The CDC announced Tuesday it was investigating 14 new reports of sexual transmission of the virus.