Zika Virus In America Essay

A woman who is pregnant can transmit the Zika virus to her baby. Babies who have been infected with the virus can be born with microcephaly, a birth defect that impacts head size and brain development.

Many pregnant women have been taking advantage of Florida’s offer of free Zika testing. The con with the free testing is that state laboratories have been unable to keep pace with the amount of women using this benefit. This has resulted in hold ups for women anxious to know whether the virus has passed to their fetuses. The reason for so many women concerns is “babies infected

Marsha- As we know, the Zika virus can be passed from the mother to the fetus and can cause congenital microcephaly and other severe brain defects to the fetus. If you have a confirmed case of the Zika virus, does your department have a protocol in place for scanning these patients? Have you performed a case that there was a confirmed case of the Zika virus? If so, can you tell us what the physicians plan was for the patient and fetus?

Zika virus creates a trepidation among people as it is spreading across South and Central America. We hear it every day as it is procuring Ebola-level awareness. In her article, “An Illustrated Guide To The Zika Outbreak, published in February 3rd of 2016, Anna Almendrala enumerates the effects of Zika virus and the alarming fear it causes among the people. “Brazilian health authorities notified the World Health Organization that an alarming number of Brazilian babies had been born with microcephaly, a rare, debilitating birth defect with lifelong consequences. Researchers quickly linked the spike in birth defects to the outbreak of a little-known tropical disease called Zika virus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes” (Almendrala). The author expounds the fatal consequence to babies born with birth defects such as microcephaly: the condition where infants born with undersized heads. The author emphasizes the relation between Zika virus and microcephaly. Microcephaly is the condition where infants born with undersized heads. Almendrala’s purpose is to convey the idea of how the Zika virus is spread across the countries through mosquitoes and she informs the audience to take special care of pregnant women as they are more prone to the Zika virus and always be vigilant while traveling to countries that are affected by Zika virus, especially African, Central and South America where more people are affected by Zika virus and more babies are born with undersized heads caused by

There is no denying that the Zika Virus epidemic is more a threat to women than it is to men. While it has yet to be proven, there are already studies pointing to a possible link between the recent Zika outbreak and the increase of babies born with birth defects. Because of the concerns over the safety of women in the midst of the pandemic, the UN has since commented about the issue. According to the global governing agency, it is imperative that women are given access to information, support and treatment should they become pregnant and infected by the disease.

The Zika Virus is a condition that initially started in Brazil and has now made its way around the world by transmission of mosquitos.The symtoms of Zika virus are typically last only a week or so and include fever, rash, and aching joints. Many adults contract the virus with no symptoms, which makes it easy to spread to their partners through sexual transmission and even onto their fetus if they are pregnant (Jin). Women began bearing children that were born with microcephaly, which is a condition that causes the head and brain to be smaller than normal. It is thought that the Zika virus starts to delay the growth of the skull from the beginning of fetal development (Teixeira). Serology tests are used to detect the virus in the mother, and

Based on the statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are more than 23,000 people in the mainland U.S. and Puerto Rico have contracted the Zika virus. Especially, there are more than 2,000 pregnant women, which is especially troubling because the virus can cause birth defects. The CDC estimates that 20 babies in the mainland U.S. and 1 baby in Puerto Rica have been born with birth defects related to Zika. The Zika virus can cause microcephaly – a condition where a baby's head and brain are undersized and underdeveloped – in as many as 13 percent of babies born to women who get infected while pregnant. It is also linked to several other types of birth defects, and to Guillain-Barre syndrome in adults. As the result, the deal reached in Congress includes $394 million to help control Zika-carrying mosquitoes and another $397 million to help develop a vaccine against the virus and better tests to help diagnose cases of Zika. There is also $66 million allocated to health care for people affected by Zika in Puerto Rico and other U.S.

Great concerns have been made by the public on the outbreak of Zika virus (ZIKV), a mosquito-borne flavivirus, on the influences it may bring to human fetal. Numerous research have been made analysing the impact on human fetal if their mothers are being infected by ZIKA virus during pregnancy and there are still more to be revealed. Freitas et al. (2016) reports the ocular findings in infant with microcephaly (birth defect with abnormal smallness of head) while Mlakar et al. (2016) reveals the consequences of ZIKA with microcephaly.

ABSTRACT: This paper will demonstrate how ultrasound has been a key tool in aiding the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in diagnosing how the outbreak of Zika virus has led pregnant women to develop fetal abnormalities such as microcephaly among others. An ultrasound is used to determine microcephaly by measuring the fetal head circumference (HC). If the HC is more than 2 standard deviations (SD) below the mean compared to other fetuses that same age and gender then this indicates microcephaly. A condition such as microcephaly usually doesn’t present itself until the second or third trimester. It is important for the sonographer to be proficient and to have time on their side in hopes for an early detection, thus recommending regular ultrasounds every few weeks to monitor the progress of the fetus.

McNeil, Donald G., and Pam Belluck. "Extensive Brain Defects seen in Babies of Mothers with Zika." New York Times, 14 Dec, 2016, pp. A.3, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

Zika is a virus transmitted to humans via infected mosquitoes (Aedes species), blood transfusion and sex (CDC, 2016b). Those who are infected rarely show symptoms but when they do, the most common symptoms are mild such as a fever, rash, joint pain or conjunctivitis (Ministry of Health, 2016). Due to these symptoms being mild and flu-like, people infected with Zika rarely die from it and often do not realize they have been infected (CDC, 2016b). However, when infected especially during pregnancy, the child may be born with a condition that causes unusually small heads, known as Microcephaly (World Health Organisation, 2016). This condition can lead to various problems such as seizures, cognitive deficits and feeding, hearing and vision problems (CDC, 2016a). At the

The Zika Virus is a disease spread to people primarily through the bite of an infected mosquito. The most common symptoms of Zika is fever, rash, and joint pain. The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting from several days to a week. People don’t usually get sick enough to make a hospital visit, which makes Zika hard to document. Correspondingly, the symptoms of Zika are closely related to many other illnesses. The Zika virus may be less harmful to the victim than Ebola or the Bubonic plague, but still is very dangerous. Zika virus affects pregnant women the most, the disease can change the genes of the newborn baby and cause unnatural birth defects. Symptoms such as poorly developed brain structures, defects of the eye, hearing deficits,

We all remember back in 2015 when the Zika outbreak in Brazil made the front covers of newspapers and the headlines of news channels around the world. While the dangers of contracting Zika continue to be on the rise, many still fail to see how this disease can devastatingly affect a fetus. Permanent damage such as empty spaces in the brain, cataracts, congenital deafness, and underdeveloped brains are just some possible outcomes.

When the cases of microcephaly started to soar last month, doctors noticed they coincided with the appearance of the Zika virus in

Aside from the dangerous symptoms, the real difficulty is how it affects pregnant women. Zika virus can be given from the mother to the baby throughout pregnancy as can result in a condition called microcephaly (the head is smaller than normal because the brain has not properly developed or is not growing) (“Zika Virus” par. 4). This can be deadly in newborn babies and is why Zika is one of the more feared