US health officials believe an outbreak of locally contracted Zika is ‘likely’ this summer.
So far more than 300 cases have been recorded of US citizens infected during travel overseas and dozens of southern states could be hit with a local outbreak, says Dr Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health.
Speaking on Fox News Sunday, he said: "It is likely we will have what’s called a local outbreak. Right now we have in continental USA over 350 imported cases. We’ve been able to control it so that it doesn’t become sustained or widespread. But the threat of at least having some local outbreak is likely so it’s up to us now to make sure when it happens we contain it."
However Fauci has downplayed the danger to American women planning pregnancies – at least for the time being.
Fauci said delaying a planned pregnancy ‘is not even an issue for discussion at this point’
Women ‘should not be worried about anything regarding pregnancy’ while there is no local outbreak in the US, but women should still avoid travel to affected countries.
Health officials finally conformed recently that Zika was the cause of thousands of cases of microcephaly, a rare birth defect but Fauci said there is another potentially worrying side effect of the disease.
He said there have been some isolated cases of neurological and spinal cord damage detected in adults who have been infected.
"So far they look unusual, but at least we’ve seen them and that’s concerning."
