SUMMER OF ZIKA
As the city braces for an outbreak, would-be NYC moms are bugging out. And with so many unanswered questions, the hysteria may be warranted
WHEN 37-yearold Eumy Frenkel heard about the spread of the Zika virus over the winter, she played it safe and canceled her upcoming babymoon to Barbados, opting for London instead.
But now, as the Short Hills, NJ, stay-at-home mom settles into her seventh month of pregnancy, she has a new concern: Zika appears to be making its way to the New York area.
The flulike disease, which is spread by mosquitoes and unprotected sex, isn’t thought to be fatal, and doesn’t require specific treatment. But the infection is linked to microcephaly, a birth defect that causes a baby to have a head that’s significantly smaller than normal.
Last week, a child was born with the condition in a New Jersey hospi- tal — the second case in the US and the first in the Northeast. Although the mother caught Zika in her native Honduras, pregnant women are still bugging out over the news.
“There’s just so much unknown about Zika,” Frenkel says. The moms-to-be have growing concerns over the limited information out there, and say they’re not sure what to do to protect themselves — and doctors say their concerns are justified.
“We don’t know what this summer’s going to bring,” says Dr. Ashley Roman, director of the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center.
Research indicates that the East Coast is at an increased risk of a Zika outbreak within the next few months, thanks to the heat and the prevalence of Aedes
albopictus, a common mosquito found in the metro area that can carry the disease.
New York is especially ripe for infection: The type of mosquitoes that carry Zika can’t travel far, so outbreaks are more likely to occur in densely populated urban areas. The increased number of tourists and residents who travel drives up the risk for Zika as well.
Plus, New York is already home to the highest number of confirmed Zika cases in the US. Of the 618 documented cases (all contracted while traveling abroad), 130 of them were in New York.
Doctors say it’s still unclear how long the infection stays in the system. “The virus seems to be detectable in blood for 7 to 14 days after infection,” Roman says. Although the CDC says there isn’t evidence
that contracting the virus would affect a future pregnancy, medical professionals stress that there isn’t enough information to be sure.
The CDC updates its guidelines and statistics almost daily, but facts are hard to come by. “[The guidelines are] based on a limited number of studies and a small number of people,” Roman says. That’s partly because symptoms, which include a rash, fever, joint pain, muscle pain and headache, only appear in about 20 percent of patients — so pregnant women may not know they have contracted the disease. There are blood and urine tests for Zika — administered by the New York State Department of Health — but results can take weeks and aren’t 100 percent accurate.
The virus appears able to affect the fetus at any stage of development. “There are cases in which Zika has affected the fetus in first, second and third trimesters,” Roman says.
That scariness of the unknown has women fleeing their summer homes and even moving temporarily.
Keren Ritchie, a 32-year-old Chelsea resident, is considering returning to her native Canada. “Maybe I’ll just move up north to Nunavut, [Canada,] and hunker down until this passes,” says the p.r. guru, who’s 22 weeks pregnant. “The thought of delivering a Zika baby is too horrifying.”
Another pregnant woman is steering clear of her Hamptons summer rental this year because the property is near marshland, says OB-GYN Brian Levine. “I said to her, ‘You’re not wrong,’” he says.
Other doctors, however, say there’s no need to panic yet. “There is still no active transmission of Zika within the continental United States,” says Roman.
One thing doctors are certain of: Male partners are a major risk factor. Since Zika can be sexually transmitted, pregnant women can contract Zika through unprotect-
“Maybe I’ll move to Canada and hunker down until this passes. The thought of delivering a Zika baby is too horrifying.” — Mom-to-be Keren Ritchie
ed sex. This may include oral sex, doctors discovered last week, after a woman in France reportedly contracted Zika after having oral sex with her partner, who had recently returned from Brazil.
It’s especially troubling because Zika has been detected in semen six months after infection — significantly longer than it’s found in blood. Doctors aren’t sure why this is the case, but the phenomenon has been observed with certain other diseases such as Ebola. Roman recommends that fathers-to-be avoid traveling to Zika-infected areas. And, if they must, they should avoid having unprotected sex for six months after they return.
The risk of infection by a partner is a concern for Ritchie, whose husband travels for work. She’s urging him to pass on an upcoming trip to Mexico, while friends who were thinking about pregnancy are delaying their efforts for up to two years until fears subside.
Beyond avoiding travel, there’s not much pregnant women can do to protect themselves outside of standard measures like loading up on bug spray. Still, such precautions aren’t a guarantee.
That’s hard to handle for Danielle Prevete. The 35-yearold is entering her second trimester after a pregnancy last year ended in anencephaly — a rare birth defect, similar to microcephaly but unrelated to Zika, in which a baby’s head develops without parts of the brain or the skull. At the time, no one had heard of the diagnosis. Now, the threat of Zika causing a similar defect is exacerbating an already emotional pregnancy.
She says she thought she’d be safe if she avoided travel, but isn’t sure what to do if Zika hits the tri-state area. “The only guidance is not to get bitten,” says Prevete, who lives in Chatham, NJ, with her husband and 3-year-old son. “I feel helpless.”