CDC reports birth defects in 1 in 10 pregnant women with confirmed Zika

Birth defects were reported in 10% of the 250 completed pregnancies with laboratory-confirmed Zika virus infection reported to the U.S. Zika Pregnancy Registry in 2016, according to a Vital Signs report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s more than 30 times higher than the baseline prevalence in pre-Zika years, the agency said. Infants or fetuses whose mothers were infected in the first trimester had the highest rate of birth defects (15%). The registry includes data from all U.S. states and territories except Puerto Rico. A total of 44 states reported pregnant women with evidence of Zika in 2016, most of whom were infected during travel to an area where the virus was present. Only one in four infants with possible congenital Zika infection were reported to have received brain imaging after birth. CDC recommends postnatal neuroimaging for all infants born to women with laboratory evidence of Zika virus infection. For the latest guidance and resources on Zika, visit www.cdc.gov/zika and www.aha.org/zika.