One in 10 U.S. women with Zika had fetus or baby with deformities

PanARMENIAN.Net - About one in 10 women in the United States who were infected with Zika virus while pregnant had a fetus or baby with deformities last year, U.S. government scientists said Tuesday, April 4, according to AFP.

The study released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tracked 250 pregnant women who had confirmed Zika infection in 2016.

Twenty-four of these women either had a fetus or baby with defects, said the CDC Vital Signs report, the first research of its kind to be released since the mosquito-borne virus made its way into the United States last year.

Zika can cause brain defects such as microcephaly, an irreversible condition in which the child's brain and skull are unusually small and misshapen.

But even though some babies are born without any outward signs of defects, they may go on to show developmental delays, so researchers cautioned that their estimates may be lower than reality.

Since Zika erupted on a large scale in mid-2015, more than 1.5 million people have been infected, mostly in Brazil and other countries in South America. Some 70 countries have been impacted.

Zika may lead to an itchy rash but often causes no symptoms.