Taking the bite out of Zika: state public health agencies face yet another threat with the Zika virus.

• Author: Johnson, Tahra
• Position: PUBLIC HEALTH

Aly Beckman, a social worker from Springfield, Penn., knows all about the Zika virus. She cancelled her 30th birthday celebration in Mexico at the last minute because of it. Her doctor advised against going because he knew she and her husband were trying to start a family, and the risks of contracting the disease and its effects on developing babies were unknown. Although its symptoms are often mild, its consequences can be devastating. Staying home was a small price to pay, Beckman says, to avoid the possible birth defects the virus might have caused.

"There is much we do not yet know about the Zika virus and its effects during pregnancy. For example, whether pregnant women are at greater risk of infection than other women," says Mark S. DeFrancesco, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. "However, because of the associated risk of microcephaly, avoiding exposure to the virus is best. That's why pregnant women and women who are considering pregnancy should delay planned travel to areas where Zika virus outbreaks are ongoing."

Thirty-seven countries in Latin America, Africa, and some Caribbean and Pacific islands had reported locally acquired cases of Zika, as of the end of March. The World Health Organization in February declared the rapid spread of the virus a global emergency and has convened its emergency committee twice to investigate the correlation between the virus and Guillain-Barre syndrome, a neurological disorder that causes temporary paralysis, and microcephaly, a birth defect. In severe cases of microcephaly babies' brains don't develop properly or are damaged during pregnancy. The babies have small heads and may suffer from seizures, developmental delays, intellectual disabilities, hearing and vision problems and more.

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A Proactive Approach

"Virtually every state has ramped up" efforts to fight the disease, says Jeff Engel from the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. Every state has set up a surveillance system, and all are "now a part of the national response."

Florida had the most Zika-infected residents in the continental U.S. in February, which impelled lawmakers there to take "a very proactive approach to addressing the concerns surrounding the Zika virus," says Speaker Pro Tem Matt Hudson (R). "We now have a citizen hotline for information, daily updates from our surgeon general, a significant number of new test kits and many other activities."

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