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HealthDay News — Five of 9 pregnancies among U.S. women who were infected with the Zika virus have resulted in adverse outcomes, according to research published in the February 26 early-release issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
All of the women contracted the mosquito-borne virus while traveling outside the United States, in regions experiencing Zika outbreaks, the officials said. In 4 of the cases, the women lost their babies: two to miscarriage and 2 to abortions after ultrasounds revealed birth defects, the CDC reported. A fifth woman gave birth in late 2015 to a child with severe microcephaly.
Of the remaining 4 women, two gave birth to apparently healthy babies and two pregnancies are continuing without known complications. Those numbers reflect confirmed cases as of February 17. Ten additional reports of Zika infection involving pregnant U.S. women are currently under investigation, the CDC added.
“Even though the [U.S.] numbers are small, they are of considerable interest,” CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, said during a news conference Friday. “We understand that the occurrence of fetal malformation, fetal loss or miscarriage, or a child with a birth defect is something that can be devastating to a family.”
