Zika virus looks ‘scarier than we initially thought,’ says CDC

U.S. public health officials have ramped up their warnings to Americans about the Zika virus, the mosquito-borne ailment that began to hit Latin America hard last year.

“Everything we look at with this virus seems to be a bit scarier than we initially thought,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s principal deputy director, in a news conference at the White House on Monday.

She said the CDC now estimates the mosquito that spreads the virus is present in about 30 U.S. states, up from an earlier estimate of about 12 states. The tweet below shows states that potentially could have mosquitoes carrying the virus:

For infected pregnant women, the Zika virus now looks like it’s a possible problem throughout the pregnancy, not just during the first trimester, Schuchat said.
“We have learned that the virus is linked to a broader set of complications in pregnancy, not just the microcephaly, but also prematurity, eye problems and some other conditions,” she added. Microcephaly is a birth defect in which babies are born with abnormally small heads.
Most people with the Zika virus are asymptomatic, and the mild end of the symptoms spectrum includes fever, rash, muscle pain and headaches, MarketWatch reported in January. But the virus can also become a paralyzing autoimmune disease and, if contracted by pregnant women, cause birth defects in their children.
The tweet below features video of Schuchat at Monday’s news conference:

The new statements about Zika are helping to fuel a political battle, as the Obama administration reiterates its call for more money to fight the virus, and Congressional Republicans push back.
The continental U.S. has 346 confirmed cases of Zika, according to a USA Today story citing the most recent CDC report. They’re all in people who had traveled to Zika-hit nations, and those affected include 32 pregnant women and seven cases of the virus being transmitted sexually.
It’s a grimmer situation for Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories, which together have 354 confirmed cases, with three travel-related and 37 pregnant women affected.
“We are quite concerned about Puerto Rico, where the virus is spreading throughout the island,” Schuchat said. “We think there could be hundreds of thousands of cases of Zika virus in Puerto Rico, and perhaps hundreds of affected babies.”

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