Do Pregnant Women Need to Worry About Zika Virus?

Last year six Aussies contracted Zika virus, the birth-defect-causing virus that’s spreading across the Americas, while travelling. Most didn’t experience any symptoms.

Thankfully, that doesn’t mean the virus is in Australia – “You can’t transmit [Zika virus] person to person, it only comes from mosquito to person,” says WH health expert Dr Ginni Mansberg.

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“We do have the Aedes aegypti mosquito [which transmits Zika virus, as well as other viruses such as dengue and yellow fever] in the Top End and Far North Queensland. So far, [Zika virus] is not there at all and we hope it will stay far away from our shores,” says Dr Mansberg.

Should pregnant women be concerned about the rise of the Ziku virus?

Zika has been not far from our shores for a while now: “In a lot of areas of the South Pacific for a while, Africa, and now it’s in South America as well.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has advised pregnant women not travel to destinations where the virus is being transmitted.

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“As this virus hopped, skipped and jumped its way over to South America, they started noticing big, big increases in the number of babies with this particular birth defect, microcephaly, where the [baby’s] head and brain are very small – if the baby survives.

"They’ll often be severely intellectually impaired for their entire life. And the doctors think – they’re not 100 per cent sure – but they think the virus is causing these birth defects.”

The virus seems to have very little effect on non-pregnant people.

“Even if you’re one of the one in five who gets symptoms, it’s very mild: a mild rash, maybe a bit of a fever, some runny eyes, and it’ll go away in a few days. And that’s why doctors haven’t really focused on it.”

So where should pregnant women avoid travelling to? “DFAT’s got a full list of countries people shouldn’t be going to if they’re pregnant, or at least at risk of being pregnant.”