SAN ANTONIO – The fears that Zika, a mosquito borne disease much like dengue fever and chikungunya, is spreading into Texas with two confirmed cases in Houston.
In order to help prevent the spread of Zika, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is advising women to avoid travel to countries to our south, including Mexico and El Salvador.
Local OB/GYN Heidi Heck said that she had not seen a case at her Seven Oaks Women’s Center in the Medical Center, but she is concerned she will one day soon. The concern stems from the seriousness of the disease to an unborn child.
“It causes their heads to be small and causes them to have brain damage. It’s irreversible and it seems to be affecting them if it's caught in any trimester or any part of the pregnancy,” Heck said.
What’s just as awful is that it can terminate a pregnancy as well, causing miscarriage and stillborn birth.
Because twenty-three countries now have some 1.5 million infected babies, including Mexico and the United States. There, air conditioning is more rare, leading to a larger chance of a mosquito bite from an infected carrier.
The particular mosquito is the female aedes aegypti, which oddly only feeds during the day. That means protection while you are sleeping is not so crucial as is daytime insect spray use.
Heck agrees with the travel ban for pregnant women.
“I don't think they need to panic right now, but we do travel a lot to Mexico and the countries south of us, so I really think they need to postpone travel to those countries if they are pregnant," she said.
There's no vaccine and no cure for pregnant women. For others who contract the disease, it will take the form of the flu at most. Eighty percent of those who are bitten by the infected insect won’t have any symptoms at all.
For more information, visit cdc.gov/zika.
WATCH: Zika virus concerns grow