Obama bringing in Zika-infected pregnant women

[Theowl32]

Baby born in US to Honduran mom with Zika has birth defect

A Honduran woman infected with Zika gave birth in New Jersey to a baby girl with birth defects caused by the virus, her doctor said Wednesday.

The infant is the second born in the United States with birth defects from the mosquito-borne virus. The first was born in Hawaii to a woman who had lived in Brazil, where the Zika epidemic began in the Americas.

The Honduran woman's baby was delivered premature by cesarean section Tuesday at Hackensack University Medical Center, said Dr. Abdulla Al-Khan, the hospital's director of maternal-fetal medicine and surgery.

The doctor said the 31-year-old mother was diagnosed with Zika in her native Central American country, where the virus has spread. She traveled to New Jersey, where she has family, to seek further treatment, he said. Hospital officials stressed that neither the mother nor the baby poses an infectious risk to others.
Baby born in US to Honduran mom with Zika has birth defect
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Do not worry folks. The rest of the AP is not reporting the number of "mystery flus" being brought in through South America. Nor the spike in measles or Tuberculosis.

So, nothing to worry about folks.

 

[waltky]

First zika microcephaly baby born in NJ...

Baby Born to Zika-infected Mom in NJ Has Microcephaly
June 01, 2016 - Health officials in New Jersey said a baby girl born on Tuesday, to a mother who was infected with the Zika virus, has severe microcephaly.

A New Jersey doctor from the Hackensack University Medical Center said a 31-year-old woman visiting the U.S. from Honduras was infected with the virus after she was bitten by the Aedes mosquito early on in her pregnancy. Microcephaly is the birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to developmental problems. Manny Alvarez, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Hackensack, told NorthJersey.com that the premature newborn also suffers from intestinal and visual issues.

Material to prevent Zika infection by mosquitoes are displayed at the 69th World Health Assembly at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland​

Dr. Abdulla Al-Khan, the hospital’s director of maternal-fetal medicine and surgery, said the mother came to the United States for treatment after Zika symptoms were discovered. The baby girl was delivered though a cesarean section, and Khan said is “completely Zika-affected,” but confirmation of the virus in the newborn is still pending tests.

The Zika virus is mainly transmitted via the Aedes mosquito. The connection between Zika and microcephaly was first discovered last year in Brazil, where more than 1,300 cases have been confirmed. All cases are considered related to Zika infections in the mothers. The outbreak is affecting parts of Latin American and the Caribbean.

Baby Born to Zika-infected Mom in NJ Has Microcephaly

 

[Old Rocks]

Baby born in US to Honduran mom with Zika has birth defect

A Honduran woman infected with Zika gave birth in New Jersey to a baby girl with birth defects caused by the virus, her doctor said Wednesday.

The infant is the second born in the United States with birth defects from the mosquito-borne virus. The first was born in Hawaii to a woman who had lived in Brazil, where the Zika epidemic began in the Americas.

The Honduran woman's baby was delivered premature by cesarean section Tuesday at Hackensack University Medical Center, said Dr. Abdulla Al-Khan, the hospital's director of maternal-fetal medicine and surgery.

The doctor said the 31-year-old mother was diagnosed with Zika in her native Central American country, where the virus has spread. She traveled to New Jersey, where she has family, to seek further treatment, he said. Hospital officials stressed that neither the mother nor the baby poses an infectious risk to others.
Baby born in US to Honduran mom with Zika has birth defect
----------------------------------------------

Do not worry folks. The rest of the AP is not reporting the number of "mystery flus" being brought in through South America. Nor the spike in measles or Tuberculosis.

So, nothing to worry about folks.

What a liar you are. "Obama bringing in Zika-infected women" That is a flat out lie.

 

[waltky]

WHO issues zika warning...

Zika might harm ‘many thousands’ of babies: WHO
Sun, Jun 05, 2016 - WHO officials on Friday cautioned that “many thousands” of infants infected with Zika virus could suffer neurological abnormalities and said nations dealing with an outbreak need to watch for problems beyond the widely reported cases of microcephaly.

These include spasticity, seizures, irritability, feeding difficulties, eyesight problems and evidence of severe brain abnormalities. Health officials had previously concluded that Zika infection in pregnant women was a cause of microcephaly in babies, a rare birth defect characterized by unusually small heads and potentially severe developmental problems. They now believe the range of potential neurological problems in infants could be much wider.

In an editorial published in a WHO bulletin, experts said 37 countries and territories in the Americas are now dealing with Zika, which is mainly spread by mosquitoes, as well as unprotected sex with an infected man.

In Brazil, the country hardest hit so far, authorities have confirmed more than 1,400 cases of microcephaly believed to be linked to the virus. “With such spread, it is possible that many thousands of infants will incur moderate to severe neurological disabilities,” the editorial said. “Existing evidence and unpublished data shared with WHO highlight the wider range of congenital abnormalities probably associated with the acquisition of Zika virus infection in utero,” the editorial said.

The organization called for routine surveillance systems and research efforts to be expanded to include a larger population than simply children with microcephaly. US officials are girding for local outbreaks, especially in southern states such as Florida and Texas, as summer mosquito season gets under way.

Zika might harm ‘many thousands’ of babies: WHO - Taipei Times

 

[waltky]

Well, that's not much help...

Infectious Disease Expert: ‘So Much We Don’t Know’ About Effects of Zika in Pregnancy
June 29, 2016 – Dr. Jeanne Sheffield, an expert in pregnancy and infectious disease and the director of maternal-fetal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital, stressed that “there is so much we don’t know” about the effects of the Zika virus in pregnancy during a Capitol Hill briefing Tuesday on child health during pregnancy.

“There is so much we don’t know,” Sheffield said of the effects of Zika on mother and child during pregnancy, “we don’t know the true incidence among pregnant women.” “We have no idea of you take a thousand women that happen to be pregnant how many of them are going to turn positive for Zika over the course of their pregnancy,” she added. “Then if a woman does turn positive during the pregnancy, we right now have no idea how many babies are going to get infected. “We don’t know what the transmission risk truly is. All we have is preliminary stuff, so we are in desperate need, because that’s what my patients want to know,” she emphasized. “They come to me, and they say, what are my chances? I’ve traveled to Puerto Rico. What are my chances of getting infected. What are my chances if I get infected of infecting my kid?

She added that if a child is infected and tests positive for Zika, “how many of them are actually going to one, have symptoms and two, what are the long term consequences? What are these kids who look absolutely normal at birth - everything is perfect at birth - are they going to be developmentally delayed at age two or age five? We have no idea.” Dr. Catherine Y. Spong, acting director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NIHCD), also emphasized the need for more information on the Zika virus in pregnancy, citing a recently launched multi-country study of pregnant women in Puerto Rico, Brazil, and other areas that are experiencing active local transmission of the virus that she hopes will yield the much needed information. The NIHCD is funding and conducting the study along with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). “We need a lot of information about Zika, and some of that we can best get through animal models, and some of that we can only get through a large cohort study, so both are absolutely essential,” Spong said. “We need to understand and be able to counsel the women who we see in our practices, what is the risk in pregnancy?”

Sheffield also discussed the things that are known about Zika and birth defects linked to the virus, such as microcephaly. “The last few months we’re starting to get true basic science and translational data saying that yes, this virus does target specific neural cells and yes, this virus does target the placenta and infect the placenta and then goes over to the fetus,” Sheffield said. “We now know that there is truly biologic link, and the CDC came out a couple months ago and said yes, there is a definite link between the two,” she said. “These brains are very abnormal to look at,” Sheffield said of the infants infected with the Zika virus who have microcephaly. “There’s also really impressive eye findings,” she added, “so we’ve now got the ophthalmologists involved and the neurologists involved in this research, because there’s very abnormal eye findings in some of these infants also.”

Sheffield also emphasized that the birth defects found in Zika infected infants were “not just a small head” characteristic of microcephaly but also “growth restrictions, so they weren’t growing normally. It was calcifications of the brain. It was other central nervous system abnormalities, fluid abnormalities, multiple things we’re seeing, so again not just a small head.” Another alarming finding Dr. Sheffield mentioned was the transmission of the virus from mother to infant in all trimesters of pregnancy. “We’re so used to viruses affecting infants early in pregnancy causing disease, and then if you get infected later on in pregnancy, maybe it’s not as bad,” she said, “but we know that even though it may be worse in the first part of pregnancy, we do know that there are babies born to moms that were infected in the third trimester that still have some abnormalities, and so we’re having to counsel women that it’s going across everything.”

Infectious Disease Expert: ‘So Much We Don’t Know’ About Effects of Zika in Pregnancy

See also:

CDC Deputy Director: ‘Too Soon’ for Us to Have Information to Counsel Pregnant Women with Zika on Abortion
June 29, 2016 – Rear Adm. Anne Schuchat, M.D., principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) testified in a Senate hearing Wednesday on preparing for and preventing the Zika virus that “it’s too soon for us to have a very confident set of information to counsel women with about just what to expect and how to plan” for possible birth defects such as microcephaly.

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) asked Schuchat, “Where is the intersection between Zika, microcephaly, a woman’s right to have an abortion, when we have the ability to determine that the fetus is going to be, child is going to maybe someday may be severely damaged?” Carper had mentioned earlier that he’d heard the lifetime cost per child of raising a child with microcephaly was $10 million - something CDC Director Tom Frieden had also said in March. “You know we’re really at the beginning of understanding Zika in pregnancy,” Schuchat stressed in her response. “We don’t know, if a woman has laboratory-confirmed Zika in pregnancy, exactly what that means for her and her baby. You know with something like a Down Syndrome test or some of the genetic testing that’s done, there’s a lot of science behind the counseling that goes on with the family about what that means for the pregnancy, but with Zika we really don’t know.”

“We don’t know that a child is going to be born with microcephaly until the child is born - the delivery?” Carper asked. “The clinicians will do serial ultrasounds to see whether it looks like the brain is developing okay or whether there are calcifications or some other warning signs, and we don’t have a big enough experience to know how predictive the findings are,” Schuchat replied. “We’ve had examples where the ultrasounds were looking okay but the baby wasn’t okay and others where there seemed to be problems and then the baby turned out to be okay,” she explained. “I think it’s too soon for us to have a very confident set of information to counsel women with about just what to expect and how to plan.”

Col. Christopher Zahn, M.D., vice president of practice activities for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, also weighed in on Carper’s question. Zahn largely agreed with Schuchat, saying, “The only thing we really have once a woman tests positive to determine what her outcome might-- the fetal outcome might be is following with ultrasound, and certainly, there are severe outcomes that may develop, and those are - I shouldn’t say obvious but - relatively obvious and should be apparent for counseling. “Other times, it’s a little bit more subtle and it may not really show the effects until after birth and furthermore as was mentioned earlier we don’t know if the virus will continue to attack the brain neurons, the nerve cells even beyond birth and what the impact of that might be,” he said.

Zahn added that “what really becomes challenging, because we don’t have a confirmatory test to know if the fetus is going to be clearly affected and to what degree, the ultrasounds add time.” “For example, a woman travels and gets infected in her first trimester, 10 or 11 weeks gestation. She tests positive within a few weeks after, and then we start the ultrasounds. She may not show a severe effect in the brain until maybe in her late, 20, 30 weeks or even further along, so now she’s faced with being in the third trimester seven months approximately along with this - what do I do,” he explained. “You can imagine the psychological stress that that creates and the anxiety, so it’s really unfortunate that again even with the testing that we do have knowing whether or not the fetus will be affected and to what degree is very challenging,” Zahn concluded.

CDC Deputy Director: ‘Too Soon’ for Us to Have Information to Counsel Pregnant Women with Zika on Abortion

 

[Snouter]

Are these generally illegal aliens that are getting impregnated and then having their expenses paid for their defective offspring by US citizens?

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

“Obama bringing in Zika-infected pregnant women”

Another ridiculous lie from the right that no intelligent person believes.

 

[waltky]

Gettin' ready for zika...

Doctors Devise Care Plan for Babies as Zika Threat Looms in US
July 21, 2016 — As U.S. public health officials try to determine whether Zika has arrived in the country, doctors are establishing guidelines on how to care for the rising number of babies whose mothers were infected with the virus during pregnancy.

Florida this week said it is investigating a case of Zika not related to travel to an area where Zika is active, raising the possibility of local transmission. So far, more than 400 pregnant women in the continental United States have evidence of Zika infection, up from 346 from a week ago, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday. All of those were related to travel or sex with an infected person who had traveled. Three more babies have been born in the United States with birth defects linked to Zika infections in their mothers, bringing the total to 12, CDC said.

Zika has been proven to cause microcephaly, a severe birth defect marked by small head size and undersized brains that requires a complex network of care providers and social workers to treat and provide support to parents. But microcephaly is just the tip of the iceberg, according to experts speaking at a CDC-sponsored workshop on Thursday. They said many babies exposed in utero who appear normal at birth may have developmental problems down the road, including hearing and vision problems.

Material to prevent Zika infection by mosquitoes are displayed at the 69th World Health Assembly at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland​

For example, babies born with a functional sucking reflex may never develop the ability to swallow and will need to be fed through a feeding tube. These infants will have a higher risk of pneumonia, said Dr. Edwin Trevathan, a pediatrician and child neurologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Less obvious damage to structures on only one side of the brain may cause seizure disorders that do not appear until adolescence, Trevathan said.

Pediatric experts at the workshop are reviewing the potential consequences of Zika infection and plan to make recommendations on ways to treat Zika-exposed infants. The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has now confirmed more than 1,600 cases of microcephaly that it considers to be related to Zika infections in the mothers.

Florida probe

See also:

Zika Investigations Eating Up Funds, Florida Officials Say
July 22, 2016 — Florida mosquito control officials worry they won't be able to keep up their efforts to contain the bugs that carry Zika without federal funding, even as concern mounts that the first infection from a mosquito bite on the U.S. mainland is near.

On Thursday, fogging trucks drove through a Miami-Dade County neighborhood where health officials are investigating a Zika diagnosis that doesn't appear to have connection to travel outside the United States. Zika is usually spread by mosquitoes, but nearly all the Zika cases in the U.S. have been contracted in other countries or through sex with someone who got it abroad. "We want to make sure we reduce the mosquito population down to zero if possible in this case," said Chalmers Vasquez, Miami-Dade County's mosquito control operations manager.

Vasquez's inspectors are going door-to-door, trapping mosquitoes for testing, hand-spraying and removing the standing water where they breed. Such aggressive mosquito control and surveillance is now routine in Miami-Dade County, which leads Florida in confirmed Zika cases linked to travel. The Florida Department of Health announced Thursday that another Zika case potentially not related to travel was being investigated in Broward County.

Nadja Mayerle with the Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District collects a mosquito trap Tuesday, July 19, 2016, near the marshes, in Salt Lake City. Health authorities in Utah are investigating a unique case of Zika found in a person who had been caring for a relative who had an unusually high level of the virus in his blood.​

While Zika's appearance in mosquitoes in the U.S. mainland is likely, health officials don't expect widespread outbreaks like those seen in Latin America and the Caribbean. Zika is such a mild disease for most people that they don't even know they have it, but it has been found to lead to severe birth defects if a pregnant woman is infected. The tropical mosquito that carries Zika, Aedes aegypti, likes to live near people and it doesn't travel far. Better building construction, more extensive use of air conditioning and window screens, wider use of bug repellant and broader mosquito control measures will help control the spread of Zika by mosquitoes in the U.S., experts believe. The same mosquito also has brought dengue and chikungunya to Florida and the Texas-Mexico border, but only in small clusters of cases.

Still, even suspected cases trigger costly responses, as inspectors sweep areas to eliminate their breeding sites, set traps and kill any mosquitoes they see. "We try to get access to every backyard we can," Vasquez said. No mosquitoes collected in Miami-Dade County so far have tested positive for Zika or other viruses carried by the same species, according to state and county officials. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it has provided Florida $8 million in Zika-specific funding, and the White House has said the state can anticipate receiving another $5.6 million in Zika funding through a grant.

MORE

 

[waltky]

First clinical trial of a Zika vaccine...

U.S. health researchers test Zika vaccine as funds run low
August 3, 2016 | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. government researchers said on Wednesday they have begun their first clinical trial of a Zika vaccine while the Obama administration told lawmakers funds to fight the virus would run out in the coming weeks due to congressional inaction.

U.S. concerns over Zika, which is spreading rapidly in the Americas and has hit Brazil the hardest, have risen since Florida authorities last week reported the first signs of local transmission in the continental United States in a Miami neighborhood. There is no approved vaccine or drug for Zika, a virus spreading rapidly in the Americas that can cause the birth defect microcephaly, marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies. A number of companies and academic groups are racing to develop a Zika vaccine, which is not expected to be ready for widespread use for at least two to three years.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health federal research agency, said its early-stage clinical trial will involve at least 80 healthy volunteers ages 18 to 35 at three study sites. It said the trial will evaluate the experimental DNA-based vaccine's safety and ability to elicit an immune system response. "A safe and effective vaccine to prevent Zika virus infection and the devastating birth defects it causes is a public health imperative," NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci said in a statement. U.S. vaccine maker Inovio Pharmaceuticals in June won U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to begin testing its Zika vaccine in humans. It began its clinical trial last month, aiming to enroll 40 healthy adult volunteers in Miami, Philadelphia and Quebec City.

A pair of Aedes albopictus mosquitoes are seen during a mating ritual while the female feeds on a blood meal​

President Barack Obama in February asked the Republican-led Congress for about $1.9 billion in emergency funds to combat Zika domestically and abroad, but lawmakers have not passed funding legislation. A $1.1 billion compromise failed after House of Representatives Republicans attached language that would place restrictions on abortion and defund part of Obama's signature 2010 healthcare law. The administration has redirected $374 million from other health initiatives including combating the Ebola virus for stopgap Zika funding. Obama's health and human services secretary, Sylvia Burwell, told top congressional appropriators in a letter that the NIH will exhaust $47 million in repurposed funding by the end of the month.

She said without additional funding, the second phase of the NIH vaccine clinical trial would have to be delayed, which could prolong the development process. "In addition, research and development of other vaccine candidates, diagnostics, therapeutics and (mosquito) vector control technologies may be constrained," Burwell wrote. She said the component within her department that provides funding to private-sector partners to develop medicines and vaccines will exhaust its $85 million in repurposed funding by the end of August. She said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would virtually exhaust its $222 million in repurposed funds for its domestic Zika response by the end of September.

TEXAS ON HIGH ALERT

 

[Hossfly]

Can't they go to a Planned Parenthood Clinic? And if not, why not?

 

[skye]

Poor Obama's grandchildren.

 

[skye]

His fault.

 

[RodISHI]

Pesticide Link in Microcephaly Cases | American Free Press