BY AARON MILLER
About 300 pregnant women who have contracted the Zika virus in the United States and its territories, are being monitored by American officials, the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced.
Health officials are keeping their eyes on 157 pregnant women was infected within about 50 U.S states, the CDC stated. Just over a week ago, it was announced that 48 pregnant women in the U.S had the virus, but the figure has now gone up tremendously.
Either, more cases of the zika virus have come up, or the numbers previously documented were under reported.
Even taking that surge into account, the areas most at risk are in U.S territories such as Puerto Rico, where 122 pregnant women are infected.
A spokesperson for the CDC told the eye of media.com ” there are now 279 infected women in American territories, the figures reported two week ago were understated and inaccurate, just a tip of the iceberg.
Only women with the typical Zika symptoms were previously reported”, he said. Those reports are now being updated to include those with possible infections irrespective of any symptoms”.
The typical symptoms include: fever, rash, red eyes, muscle pain – or who had suffered from complications in pregnancy.
There is a new tracking program intended to “enhance risk assessment and counseling of pregnant women and families, advance clinical care, and assist states and territories to anticipate and plan needed resources and increase prevention efforts.”
A total of 544 Zika cases have been reported in the U.S, including 10 cases where the virus was transmitted through sexual contact. However, the 300 pregnant women being monitored by health officials are closely being watched because of fears it will pass to their babies when born, which may in turn spread even wider.
Puerto Rico have recorded a total of 836 cases reported.
The outbreak started last year in Brazil, but rapidly spread into other countries in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
LAW MAKERS
American lawmakers are still trying to deal with the issue. The Obama administration plan to inject $9 billion to research the disease and keep it from spreading. Congress are yet to approve the plans. An earlier bill by Senate this week providing $1.1bn to fight the disease was displaced by a much smaller figure of $622m.
