Zika-Related Birth Defects Prevalent in Babies Born in New York City

Across the U.S., almost 1,500 pregnant women were infected with the Zika virus and 64 infants were born with Zika-related birth defects. A quarter of these infants were born to women living in New York City, health officials announced Thursday.

The New York City Department of Health claimed that 402 pregnant New Yorkers were tested positive for Zika, 32 infants were infected with the virus and 16 of them were born with Zika-related birth defects since last spring. All of the infections occurred due to travel in areas where the epidemic was prevalent and 11 of the cases were transmitted sexually by partners who traveled to these regions.

Birth defects from the Zika virus include microcephaly, characterized by abnormal smallness of the head, and Congenital Zika Syndrome, a pattern of typically five different defects.

“Recognizing that Zika is a cause of certain birth defects does not mean that every pregnant woman infected with Zika will have a baby with a birth defect,” according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “It means that infection with Zika during pregnancy increases the chances for these problems. Scientists continue to study how Zika virus affects mothers and their children to better understand the full range of potential health problems that Zika virus infection during pregnancy may cause.”

Once the city released this data, a new campaign, aimed at pregnant women, was created to raise awareness of the virus and perhaps administer a warning.

“Last year, the city took unprecedented action to raise awareness and reach out to communities about the risks of traveling to areas with Zika transmission,” health commissioner, Dr. Mary T. Bassett, said in a statement. “This season, our campaign and awareness efforts are shaped by what we learned over the past year. Although local transmission of the Zika virus remains unlikely, the virus continues to circulate in Latin America and the Caribbean islands. We urge women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant, along with their sexual partners, to avoid traveling to these areas.”

New York City’s deputy mayor for health and human services, Dr. Herminia Palacio, said that the risk of local transmission in the city was “exceedingly low.”

“While we did not see any locally acquired cases of Zika last summer, we did see several hundred cases transmitted through travel in locations where the virus is still very prevalent,” she said in a statement. “It is critical that New Yorkers who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant, along with their sexual partners, do not travel to Zika-affected areas.”

New studies of the virus indicate that it may have been circulating in Brazil months before it was ever detected and moved toward Central America and the Caribbean well before it was discovered. Zika was able to move so easily without recognition because there are little side effects of the virus and many women didn’t recognize they were carrying the virus until their babies were born with defects.

By the end of last year, more than 2,300 babies in Brazil were born with microcephaly, which epidemiologists rushed to find an explanation for. While officials in Brazil claimed the state of emergency is over, experts worry that the virus could rise again in the Caribbean this summer.

Featured Image via Flickr/Frankleleon