Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
Health Officials Split Over Advice on Pregnancy in Zika Areas
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.APRIL 14, 2016
As the Zika virus bears down on the United States, federal health officials are divided over a politically and ethically charged question: Should they advise American women to delay pregnancy in areas where the virus is circulating?
Some infectious disease experts are arguing that avoiding conception is the only sure way to prevent the births of deformed babies, according to outside researchers who serve on various advisory panels.
...
Several federal experts central to the discussion declined to be interviewed for this article. Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, described the internal debate as ?a very long conversation.?
For now, ?we do not have a recommendation to not become pregnant,? Dr. Frieden said at a ?Zika summit? held recently at disease agency headquarters in Atlanta. ?We do recommend access to contraception.?
...
Currently, the question affects Americans only in Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands and American Samoa, where the Zika virus is circulating locally. But if the virus spreads as expected this summer, women in Hawaii and many Gulf Coast states may also be faced with tough choices.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/health/zika-virus-pregnancy-delay-birth-defects-cdc.html?_r=0
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.APRIL 14, 2016
As the Zika virus bears down on the United States, federal health officials are divided over a politically and ethically charged question: Should they advise American women to delay pregnancy in areas where the virus is circulating?
Some infectious disease experts are arguing that avoiding conception is the only sure way to prevent the births of deformed babies, according to outside researchers who serve on various advisory panels.
...
Several federal experts central to the discussion declined to be interviewed for this article. Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, described the internal debate as ?a very long conversation.?
For now, ?we do not have a recommendation to not become pregnant,? Dr. Frieden said at a ?Zika summit? held recently at disease agency headquarters in Atlanta. ?We do recommend access to contraception.?
...
Currently, the question affects Americans only in Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands and American Samoa, where the Zika virus is circulating locally. But if the virus spreads as expected this summer, women in Hawaii and many Gulf Coast states may also be faced with tough choices.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/health/zika-virus-pregnancy-delay-birth-defects-cdc.html?_r=0