Specialists to care for Zika babies are in short supply
Rural areas lack facilities while big cities ramp up clinics
Babies born with Zika virus-related birth defects, such as severe brain damage and trouble seeing, hearing and walking, may find their troubles compounded by a shortage of doctors trained to treat them.
“These children are going to need an incredible amount of care,” said Ann Tilton, a child neurologist in New Orleans and fellow of the American Academy of Neurology.
Neurologists such as Tilton who are trained to diagnose and manage the care of babies with brain damage are in short supply, especially in rural areas. A study in 2013 from the American Academy of Neurology, conducted long before the Zika outbreak made news, found that the USA needed about 11% more neurologists than it had.
Zika is best known for causing microcephaly, in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and incomplete brain development. Congenital Zika virus syndrome, as the condition has become known, can include a variety of devastating problems, including seizures and joint deformities that prevent babies from fully using their arms and legs. They’ll need the care of a host of medical specialists, as well as intensive, hands-on care from physical therapists, occupational therapists and others.
Often such specialists are concentrated in large cities and are overloaded with more patients than they can handle.
Jennifer Kelly travels 21⁄ 2 hours from Huntsville, Ala. to take her 11-year-old son who has Tourette syndrome to a pediatric neurologist in Birmingham. Her son needs to see a pediatric neurologist every two years. His doctor’s calendar fills up so quickly that Kelly schedules appointments two years in advance.
Children with seizures commonly wait three to six months to see pediatric neurologists, said Edward McCabe, medical director of the March of Dimes, a nonprofit group that works to prevent birth defects and infant mortality.
When McCabe worked in Colorado, families of children with rare diseases sometimes drove two days to see him.
Access to care “could be a big problem” for babies affected by Zika, McCabe said.
No one knows how many babies in the USA will be harmed by Zika. The total is certain to be far smaller than in Brazil, which has confirmed 1,835 cases of microcephaly.
Seventeen babies with Zika-related birth defects have been born in the USA — a number that is likely to grow as pregnant women infected with the virus deliver their children.
Nearly 600 pregnant women in the continental USA and Hawaii have been infected with Zika, mostly while traveling, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The U.S. health care system is robust enough to care for the additional children who will need extensive care, said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
A handful of U.S. medical hospitals are creating specialized Zika centers. Children’s National Health System in Washington announced its center in May. The Johns Hopkins Zika Center opened in Baltimore last month.
“These children are going to need an incredible amount of care.” Ann Tilton, child neurologist