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C.D.C. Urges Zika Testing for Some Who Are Pregnant
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.JAN. 19, 2016
Pregnant women who feel sick and have visited countries in which the Zika virus is spreading should see a doctor soon and ?IF be tested for infection even though the tests are imperfect, federal health officials said on Tuesday.
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For such a woman, the picture the guidelines presented is ?pretty bleak,? said Dr. William Schaffner, the chairman of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University.
Some of the recommended tests result in false positive outcomes, he noted, while others are not useful until late in pregnancy. Moreover, the nation?s top laboratories simply don?t yet have the capacity to test all the women who should be tested.
Pregnant women who fell ill with Zika symptoms ? these include fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes ? during travel or two weeks afterward should get blood tests for the virus, the guidelines say. Those with no symptoms do not need blood tests.
That may cause controversy, experts said, because 80 percent of infected people never develop symptoms, and it is not known whether an asymptomatic infection can affect a fetus.
Dr. Denise J. Jamieson, one of the C.D.C. authors, acknowledged that there is no way to know whether the babies of mothers who did not get noticeably ill might be harmed.
...
Whether a symptomatic woman?s test is positive or negative, the guidelines say, she should be offered a fetal ultrasound to look for microcephaly or calcification inside the developing skull.
Unfortunately, microcephaly is generally not detectable by ultrasound before the end of the second trimester.
Women who choose to abort a microcephalic fetus would be forced to seek a late-term abortion.
...
Dr. Schaffner said that obstetricians? offices would be filled with worried women, and that their doctors ? normally not obligated to think as much about exotic foreign viruses as infectious disease specialists are ? would face a steep learning curve.
?This is a virus with a strange name, an international origin and potentially horrendous consequences,? he said. ?This is going to be enormously anxiety-provoking.?
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See also:
Interim Guidelines for Pregnant Women During a Zika Virus Outbreak ? United States, 2016 (CDC, January 19, 2016)
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.JAN. 19, 2016
Pregnant women who feel sick and have visited countries in which the Zika virus is spreading should see a doctor soon and ?IF be tested for infection even though the tests are imperfect, federal health officials said on Tuesday.
...
For such a woman, the picture the guidelines presented is ?pretty bleak,? said Dr. William Schaffner, the chairman of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University.
Some of the recommended tests result in false positive outcomes, he noted, while others are not useful until late in pregnancy. Moreover, the nation?s top laboratories simply don?t yet have the capacity to test all the women who should be tested.
Pregnant women who fell ill with Zika symptoms ? these include fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes ? during travel or two weeks afterward should get blood tests for the virus, the guidelines say. Those with no symptoms do not need blood tests.
That may cause controversy, experts said, because 80 percent of infected people never develop symptoms, and it is not known whether an asymptomatic infection can affect a fetus.
Dr. Denise J. Jamieson, one of the C.D.C. authors, acknowledged that there is no way to know whether the babies of mothers who did not get noticeably ill might be harmed.
...
Whether a symptomatic woman?s test is positive or negative, the guidelines say, she should be offered a fetal ultrasound to look for microcephaly or calcification inside the developing skull.
Unfortunately, microcephaly is generally not detectable by ultrasound before the end of the second trimester.
Women who choose to abort a microcephalic fetus would be forced to seek a late-term abortion.
...
Dr. Schaffner said that obstetricians? offices would be filled with worried women, and that their doctors ? normally not obligated to think as much about exotic foreign viruses as infectious disease specialists are ? would face a steep learning curve.
?This is a virus with a strange name, an international origin and potentially horrendous consequences,? he said. ?This is going to be enormously anxiety-provoking.?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See also:
Interim Guidelines for Pregnant Women During a Zika Virus Outbreak ? United States, 2016 (CDC, January 19, 2016)