NEW YORK (AP) — The government is reporting that three babies have been born in the U.S. with birth defects caused by the Zika virus.
Birth defects from Zika were also seen in three other pregnancies that ended.
Thursday’s report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the first accounting of pregnancy outcomes in the U.S. that involve an infection with mosquito-borne virus.
The CDC says 234 pregnant women in the United States — residents and visitors — have been diagnosed with Zika. Most of the pregnancies are ongoing.
All the cases are connected to travel to areas with Zika outbreaks, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean. There has been no spread by mosquitoes of the Zika virus in the U.S.
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Online:
CDC Zika page: http://www.cdc.gov/zika/index.html
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The Rethugliklans already have a plan to deal with this news: Defund the CDC.
Combine where the Republicans are right now with an actual public health problem originating from Latin America, with the news coverage heating up in the run-up to the Rio Olympics, with the staggeringly cynical approach the GOP took to Ebola during the 2014 midterms, and you get my nightmare story for the summer.
Forget whatever this panic could do to the Dems’ chances of flipping the Senate. These are the ingredients for a genuinely appalling human tragedy.
Here’s hoping that a vaccine to attack the Zika virus is quickly developed and distributed to prospective mothers.