Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
CDC?S ZIKA TALLY WILL LIKELY NEVER BE ACCURATE BECAUSE OF LATE START
BY JESSICA FIRGER ON 6/18/16 AT 10:23 AM
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On Friday, the agency announced it is now tracking data on Zika-related pregnancy complications in the U.S....
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But some public health experts say the effort should have occurred much earlier in the outbreak, and will fail to provide an accurate snapshot of how the virus is affecting pregnancies in the U.S. Bruce Lee, associate professor of international health and director of operations research, international vaccine access center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says there is mixed awareness when it comes to the significance of the outbreak. For some time clinicians haven?t known what to look in patients, especially when it comes to Zika-related birth defects.
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Lee says in the case of Zika and Zika-related birth defects, underreporting has probably already happened. This may be especially true in poorer communities that have limited access to health care, or are serviced by medical centers that are short-staffed with limited resources and without an effective electronic medical records system. ?Usually the weakest link is at the provider level,? he says. ?There may be providers that are very stressed in terms of time.?
http://www.newsweek.com/cdc-underestimate-birth-defects-microcephaly-zika-virus-471828
BY JESSICA FIRGER ON 6/18/16 AT 10:23 AM
...
On Friday, the agency announced it is now tracking data on Zika-related pregnancy complications in the U.S....
...
But some public health experts say the effort should have occurred much earlier in the outbreak, and will fail to provide an accurate snapshot of how the virus is affecting pregnancies in the U.S. Bruce Lee, associate professor of international health and director of operations research, international vaccine access center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says there is mixed awareness when it comes to the significance of the outbreak. For some time clinicians haven?t known what to look in patients, especially when it comes to Zika-related birth defects.
...
Lee says in the case of Zika and Zika-related birth defects, underreporting has probably already happened. This may be especially true in poorer communities that have limited access to health care, or are serviced by medical centers that are short-staffed with limited resources and without an effective electronic medical records system. ?Usually the weakest link is at the provider level,? he says. ?There may be providers that are very stressed in terms of time.?
http://www.newsweek.com/cdc-underestimate-birth-defects-microcephaly-zika-virus-471828