ANOTHER WHAT IF
The worry that seizes expectant parents is hard enough without adding fear of Zika virus,
Contrary to our rosy insistence that there is nothing more “natural” than childbirth, and our current fetishizing of the baby bump, pregnancy has always been a time, for expectant mothers — and fathers — of deep internal worry: What if the baby isn’t healthy? What if we can’t take care of it? What if we’re not good parents?
And of course, in the mother’s case, what if I’m exposed to an illness that could be damaging to my growing baby?
If everything that world health authorities are now warning about the newly prominent and quickly spreading Zika virus is true, then that fear just went viral, literally and figuratively.
Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that results in mainly mild, flu-like symptoms in adults, but is now being linked in Brazil to a recent considerable uptick in babies (last year 3,500, more than 20 times the norm) born with microcephaly — small heads — along with brain damage. Experts have warned it is currently spreading throughout the Americas. (Big asterisk — Canada does not have the mosquito that carries the illness.)
Pregnant women and those hoping to be have been advised by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to reconsider travelling to a growing list — now up to 30 — of countries in Latin America including popular winter hot spots Mexico, the Caribbean and Panama.
But that’s not all. Brazil, already worried about hosting the Olympics this summer, has asked women there not to get pregnant for several months. El Salvador issued an astounding warning, advising women in that country not to get pregnant until 2018, causing one journalist to tweet: “So will the government stop jailing them for abortions?”
Imagine being asked — or told — to put your pregnancy plans on hold for two years. For women already into their 30s, this could be an added stress factor.
There are many nightmarish aspects to this virus. While it has been linked to increased cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome in adults, which results in a usually temporary paralysis, often those affected have no symptoms, so they wouldn’t be prompted to have their fetuses monitored.
Moreover there is so far no vaccine or antiviral treatment for it, and while it is generally assumed to be transmitted by the Aedis aegypti mosquito, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) just issued a report saying “the virus had been isolated in human semen” and “one case of possible person-to-person sexual transmission has been described.”
So should pregnant Canadian women panic?
“This is really unprecedented. A travel advisory of this kind has never happened before,” Dr. Kamran Khan of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto told Mac- lean’s magazine last week, while another doctor confidently used the “p” word — pandemic — on CBC News Network.
I know a few pregnant women and they seem calm about it, either because they are far enough along in their pregnancy (the dangers seem most serious in the first trimester) or because they have no plans to travel to affected countries.
I also spoke to a recently married Toronto woman planning a tropical vacation in May, who said she was not planning to be pregnant, but that if she was, “we might reconsider where we were going.”
A spokesperson for the Canada Health Agency told me it is advising women who are pregnant or considering getting pregnant to “postpone travel and consult their doctor about their travel plans.” All world health agencies are directing everyone in these countries to prevent mosquito bites with repellent, protective clothing and netting.
Like many swiftly moving global diseases, Zika has a lot of unknowns — including definitive research results that unambiguously link the resultant brain damage in newborns to the virus.
Brazil is promising quick and rigorous research.
The spread of Zika, which began as a small-scale virus carried by the same mosquitoes that infect people with dengue fever in Africa, has been recently blamed on both climate change — those dangerous mosquitoes now moving northward because the air is warmer —
“A travel advisory of this kind has never happened before.” DR. KAMRAN KHAN ST. MICHAEL’S HOSPITAL
and globalization in general — we are travelling much more than we used to.
Here’s my conclusion: Pregnant women should indeed consult their doctors, especially if they’ve already travelled to a tropical destination and felt ill during or after.
Pregnant couples planning an imminent “babymoon” — an intimate celebratory getaway before the baby arrives — should ponder plaid flannel and the romantic possibilities of a roaring fire and a cosy chalet in this country. Easier on the wallet too, these days.
They should also keep on top of all Zika advisories either on the Public Health Agency of Canada website (publichealth.gc.ca) or PAHO’s website (PAHO.org).
They might also try to avoid gazing at too many mosquito visuals online.
And of course, as is customary, they should continue to worry moderately about, well, everything. As a friend, whose unborn daughter is close to term, points out: “If it’s not the Zika virus, it’s a whole lot of other things.” Judith Timson writes weekly about cultural, social and political issues. You can reach her at judith.timson@sympatico.ca and follow her on Twitter @judithtimson.