New Zika News

HBamama2B · February 2016

Don't know how many have seen this yet, but it provides outcomes for the 9 pregnant US women who were confirmed to have contracted Zika while traveling.

https://health.wusf.usf.edu/post/cdc-zika-infections-confirmed-9-pregnant-women-us#stream/0

almostpriceless · February 2016

I have a feeling this is going to make its way to the gulf coast a lot faster than anyone expected. Scary.

goldie987 · February 2016

almostpriceless said:

I have a feeling this is going to make its way to the gulf coast a lot faster than anyone expected. Scary.

The CDC has already said they are expecting it to spread in pockets at the very least in the southern US where the mosquitos that are known to carry it live. I'm just hoping that it stays down south until at the very least after this baby comes out. Even if most of the risk is likely during first tri (not confirmed but it would make sense, right?), I know I'm going to stress about every single mosquito bite I get if this thing moves into the species of mosquito that is in the area I live in.

jmohio · February 2016

There have been cases in our county. (I don't think any were pregnant) my doctor said they will be keeping an eye on patients when mosquitoes start to pop up. My doctor said to invest in light weight long sleeves for the spring and they are going to give a list of all approved insect repellents.

jerseygirl9090 · February 2016

I hope it stays south of North Carolina mosquitoes get bad were I live. I def will be wearing long sleeves or staying inside mostly.

ahernandez16 · February 2016

I honestly haven't done too much research on Zika because I wasn't planning on baby mooning anywhere tropical and mosquitos aren't really an issue where I live until summer time. Plus, my doctor hasn't mentioned it to me at all.

Excuse my ignorance, but is it only dangerous to pregnant women/fetuses? I feel like I don't hear about it infecting anybody else. The few articles I have read have all been tailored around pregnant women since that's my current situation.

MynaBird · February 2016

Jerseygirl9090 said:

I hope it stays south of North Carolina mosquitoes get bad were I live. I def will be wearing long sleeves or staying inside mostly.

To be clear, the CDC is not saying that Zika is being spread by mosquitoes in the United States:

The health agency said the nine women had been to places with Zika outbreaks — American Samoa, Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Samoa.

goldie987 · February 2016

ahernandez16 said:

I honestly haven't done too much research on Zika because I wasn't planning on baby mooning anywhere tropical and mosquitos aren't really an issue where I live until summer time. Plus, my doctor hasn't mentioned it to me at all.

Excuse my ignorance, but is it only dangerous to pregnant women/fetuses? I feel like I don't hear about it infecting anybody else. The few articles I have read have all been tailored around pregnant women since that's my current situation.

Zika hasn't been researched a lot because, while it's a cousin of Dengue Fever, its main symptoms are a rash and aches for a few days, nothing too bad. Unlike Dengue Fever, Zika appears to be able to cross the placenta and cause issues in a developing fetus even though it doesn't really seem to harm the mother. IMO (I work in bio but by no means work on zika or viruses even) it's going to turn out to be similar to Cytomegalovirus, it causes mild symptoms in the general population but is dangerous to pregnant women IF their first exposure is during pregnancy.

Correct me if I'm wrong but you're in CA, right? There are only 2 known species of mosquito that can carry Zika in the US and neither of them make it out to CA last I saw. One of them is localized to the southern US and is known to be an effective carrier of Zika, the other goes most of the way up the east coast and roughly 1/2 way across the US but we don't know how effective of a carrier it will be, only that it is a relative of the species that does carry it and theoretically can be a carrier so maybe that's why it hasn't been mentioned at all to you?

goldie987 · February 2016

MynaBird said:

Jerseygirl9090 said:

I hope it stays south of North Carolina mosquitoes get bad were I live. I def will be wearing long sleeves or staying inside mostly.

To be clear, the CDC is not saying that Zika is being spread by mosquitoes in the United States:

The health agency said the nine women had been to places with Zika outbreaks — American Samoa, Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Samoa.

Not yet maybe, but the mosquitos that carry it DO reside here, at the very least in the southern US. If someone comes back with active Zika and gets bit by a mosquito, it will be able to be spread at the very least in small pockets around the affected individual.

HBamama2B · February 2016

Thanks @mynabird. I tried to be clear in my posting that these were not local, but travel, cases. I should have made it more specific.

ahernandez16 · February 2016

Sgoldberg247 said:

ahernandez16 said:

I honestly haven't done too much research on Zika because I wasn't planning on baby mooning anywhere tropical and mosquitos aren't really an issue where I live until summer time. Plus, my doctor hasn't mentioned it to me at all.

Excuse my ignorance, but is it only dangerous to pregnant women/fetuses? I feel like I don't hear about it infecting anybody else. The few articles I have read have all been tailored around pregnant women since that's my current situation.

Zika hasn't been researched a lot because, while it's a cousin of Dengue Fever, its main symptoms are a rash and aches for a few days, nothing too bad. Unlike Dengue Fever, Zika appears to be able to cross the placenta and cause issues in a developing fetus even though it doesn't really seem to harm the mother. IMO (I work in bio but by no means work on zika or viruses even) it's going to turn out to be similar to Cytomegalovirus, it causes mild symptoms in the general population but is dangerous to pregnant women IF their first exposure is during pregnancy.

Correct me if I'm wrong but you're in CA, right? There are only 2 known species of mosquito that can carry Zika in the US and neither of them make it out to CA last I saw. One of them is localized to the southern US and is known to be an effective carrier of Zika, the other goes most of the way up the east coast and roughly 1/2 way across the US but we don't know how effective of a carrier it will be, only that it is a relative of the species that does carry it and theoretically can be a carrier so maybe that's why it hasn't been mentioned at all to you?

Yep. Central CA, so that makes sense.

Thanks for the information! The ladies on this site are typically 100% more helpful than Google.

hollywoodave531 · February 2016

I spoke with my OB about this today specifically because my husband was in Tampa for four days and even though no one has been diagnosed as getting it without travel outside the US, we are still concerned because there were mosquitos around. My Doctor said that for every known case the CDC has diagnosed that there could be as many as 3x that amount undiagnosed, especially since symptoms only persist in about 1 out of 5 people. He told us to use extra protection just as a caution. I wouldn't think he would be the first person to get it without traveling outside the US but we just don't want to take any chances.

almostpriceless · March 2016

MynaBird said:

Jerseygirl9090 said:

I hope it stays south of North Carolina mosquitoes get bad were I live. I def will be wearing long sleeves or staying inside mostly.

To be clear, the CDC is not saying that Zika is being spread by mosquitoes in the United States:

The health agency said the nine women had been to places with Zika outbreaks — American Samoa, Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Samoa.

All of this. Zika has been mentioned at my OBs office, but with extreme emphasis being put on the following: that it was only being mentioned due to our proximity to Mexico, the existance of the mosquitos that carry the virus in our region (Houston area) and the number of patients considered to be at risk due to nationality and the potential to travel their home countries or have sexual partners who might do so.

VikingGirl12 · March 2016

I'm not liking this southern us talk. We have had mosquitos for a couple of weeks now and I have had 3-4 bites since being pregnant. I'm just gonna keep applying the spray and staying inside ugh!

goldie987 · March 2016

VikingGirl12 said:

I'm not liking this southern us talk. We have had mosquitos for a couple of weeks now and I have had 3-4 bites since being pregnant. I'm just gonna keep applying the spray and staying inside ugh!

There's no reports of mosquito transmission that I've heard of yet if that makes you feel any better, only sexual transmission. Just keep up with bug spray and staying inside at high mosquito times.

kaitielynnrichardson · March 2016

I had the Orange County (Florida) health department out to my house to check my yard and my surrounding neighbors yard for mosquitos (because it was recommended), and he said not to worry the media is blowing it out of proportion. The cases in the US are travel related and unless I'm leaving the country not to worry. Then he said.. Don't go to the Caribbean. Clearly, I have no intentions on that. I say all that to say, a few of my friends have been advised not to come to Florida bc of the virus, but i don't get that bc a) I live here and have not be informed that I or my child are in danger, and b) it's not being contracted here... Anyway, some bug spray will do just fine for me this spring.

HBamama2B · March 2016

@kaitielynnrichardson that's great they'll come to your house!

Also, given the responses here, I should clarify. My post / the article was less about internal (US) risk of contraction and more about outcomes. This latest story provides stronger links (5 of 9 bad outcomes among this group) for women who contract Zika, from more places than just Brazil. Given that more than half of the women being tracked by the CDC had negative outcomes, I wouldn't think the article blew anything out of proportion or that the media is particularly inflaming the threat or fear substantially above what might be warranted for due caution, but sensational news gets lots of repeated, often grossly inaccurate, coverage and that is definitely frustrating as we try to weed through to identify actual risks. That's true for Zika and almost all major news.

princessandthegator · March 2016

Florida's had a bunch of cases, something like 14 here in Miami-Dade County.

Funny story: I picked up Pei-Wei for dinner the other night and had it on my lap on the way home. I go to pee as soon as I get home and see a rash on my thigh. I started crying and told H I had Zika because my arm had a mosquito bite and I had a rash...and he reminded me that was the thigh where the hot food was...

It's got everyone paranoid around here but most Dr's agree it prob is the biggest threat in the first tri. Regardless, I've been carrying mosquito repellent with deet for a couple of months now.

kara0729 · March 2016

I'm just speculating...but my educated GUESS...is that this will not affect anyone in late pregnancy. It's more of a first/early second trimester thing to be worried about. I was in Mexico for our babymoon in January (I was around 20 weeks). When I brought it up to my doctor - he wasn't concerned since I was over the halfway point with my pregnancy and my anatomy exam was completely normal. With that said - we did get the option for a second "anatomy scan" at 28 weeks to keep an eye on things. I'm not worried, nor is my doctor, who specializes in high risk pregnancies. I'll keep you updated since that ultrasound isn't until next Tuesday.

peregrinefalconx · March 2016

kara0729 My high risk doc told me he would tell his own pregnant wife to go on our trip to Aruba, which was in late Jan-early Feb. There were no known cases there. It is now on the list (and people were probably actively getting infected while I was there), which means that I can get tested. My 20w scan prior to trip was normal and my 28 week scan is in a couple of weeks. I would have been 22w while there. I did get eaten up the first two days (at night) by little brown mosquitoes (and not the aedes aegypti carriers). I just mention all of this bc your story sounds similar and I'll be interested to hear your update!

kaitielynnrichardson · March 2016

@hbmama2b yes, I think I called them around 10am and they were at my front door by 12:30pm same day. I live by a lake, so they wanted to make sure at the very least that there were not any infestations around anywhere. I do not do bugs in way shape or form, so it was extremely nice that they checked that out for us. Also, being in Florida, we have bi-monthly pest service anyway, so as a rule, we don't see many bugs around my house, thank goodness!

JuneBaby1984 · March 2016

I was also in mexico right when the zika stuff happened in January. I had a normal 20 week scan as well and will ask about a later scan at my appointment tomorrow. I did not have any Symptoms but did get bit by little brown mosquitos at night as well (3 or 4 bites). I am interested to see what doctors are recommending to others who were in places on the list and how things went..I hope good for everyone!

mkemommy · March 2016

More zika news/fun for those of us further North.

https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/02/health/zika-mosquito-aedes-aegypti-map-colder-climates/index.html

goldie987 · March 2016

mkemommy said:

More zika news/fun for those of us further North.

https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/02/health/zika-mosquito-aedes-aegypti-map-colder-climates/index.html

As someone who live in the DC area, this article blows...I know it said it's a limited population but I don't want them here! Make them go away!

mkemommy · March 2016

Sgoldberg247 said:

mkemommy said:

More zika news/fun for those of us further North.

https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/02/health/zika-mosquito-aedes-aegypti-map-colder-climates/index.html

As someone who live in the DC area, this article blows...I know it said it's a limited population but I don't want them here! Make them go away!

I hear you. I canceled our babymoon, which was also our mutual anniversary gift to each other and H's 40th birthday gift, to St Lucia to avoid these mosquitoes. If they come North anywhere near me before June I'm going to be really irate.

lm45678 · March 2016

kara0729 said:

I'm just speculating...but my educated GUESS...is that this will not affect anyone in late pregnancy. It's more of a first/early second trimester thing to be worried about. I was in Mexico for our babymoon in January (I was around 20 weeks). When I brought it up to my doctor - he wasn't concerned since I was over the halfway point with my pregnancy and my anatomy exam was completely normal. With that said - we did get the option for a second "anatomy scan" at 28 weeks to keep an eye on things. I'm not worried, nor is my doctor, who specializes in high risk pregnancies. I'll keep you updated since that ultrasound isn't until next Tuesday.

I agree- I'll be 25 weeks Saturday and even further when it gets hot enough for mosquitos.

I'm way more worried for going on vacation after baby and my next LO being at risk from either my husband or me. I think I'll be staying in the northern US until my pregnant days are behind me.

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