scary virus for those planning travel to Latin America or the Caribbean

[Anonymous]

Federal health officials are debating whether to warn pregnant women against travel to Brazil and other Latin American and Caribbean countries where mosquitoes are spreading the Zika virus, which has been linked to brain damage in newborn babies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/health/zika-virus-cdc-travel-warning-brazil-caribbean.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

I was about to buy tickets for a quick getaway, but am having second thoughts now.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing, OP. We were also considering something Caribbean in March, but now I'm not so sure!

[Anonymous]

Scary. I was in the Caribbean last month and got bit by so many mosquitoes even though I wore Deet the entire time and was at a nice resort that sprayed for bugs every day.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't go. Read the NYT article - the doctor quoted said he wouldn't let his pregnant daughter travel. NOT worth the risk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Scary. I was in the Caribbean last month and got bit by so many mosquitoes even though I wore Deet the entire time and was at a nice resort that sprayed for bugs every day.

No resort that bombs its guests with pesticides every day qualifies as nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Scary. I was in the Caribbean last month and got bit by so many mosquitoes even though I wore Deet the entire time and was at a nice resort that sprayed for bugs every day.

Me too. I was in the Caribbean over Christmas and got so many bites. It sounds like we would have some other symptoms if we were infected with something.

[Anonymous]

Scary. Hope the virus doesn't spread this way. With warm winter and all the precipitation, I worry that we will have a horrific mosquito problem this spring and summer.

[Anonymous]

We were going to go to Key West as a pre-baby vacation, and I know it's not on the list, but it's a little too close for comfort so I think we're going to go to CA.

[Anonymous]

The CDC site says there are already cases in Northern Mexico. I wonder how long til those mosquitos fly over the border to Texas (even Donald Trump's wall can't keep them out.)

[Anonymous]

I work for an organization with a lot of international travel and this is the advice I got:

Here, also, is more extensive information from an evidence based medicine database of research on safety of DEET in pregnancy

Use in pregnancy – The recommendations for DEET use in pregnant and lactating women do not differ from those for nonpregnant adults [19]. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has advised pregnant women to take precautions to reduce their risk of acquiring arboviral infections (eg, West Nile virus) by avoiding mosquito bites through use of protective clothing and DEET-based repellents [23].
First trimester exposure of rats and rabbits to DEET did not result in an increased risk of malformations in offspring, although one study using a dose several-fold higher than the normal human dose reported an increase in low birth weight [24]. There are no human data for first trimester exposure. A double-blind, randomized, therapeutic trial of insect repellents for the prevention of malaria in 897 pregnant women did not find any adverse neurologic, gastrointestinal, or dermatologic effects in women who applied a median total DEET dose of 214 g per pregnancy (range = 0 to 345 g) [25]. No adverse effects were noted on fetal/infant survival, growth, or development up to one year of age. DEET was detected in four cord blood samples from a randomly selected subgroup of 50 DEET users.

Other precautions you should take include wearing long sleeves and pants to the degree possible, treating your clothing with permethrin before you travel (which will last through several washes), and avoiding being outdoors during peak mosquito biting times (daytime and early evening are when these mosquitos bite) to the extent possible. If your travel is primarily going to be in capital cities, your risks may be more limited. Of all the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, Brazil has been the hardest hit, with up to a million cases. El Salvador and Colombia have numbers in the low thousands.

[Anonymous]

The WHO site says the risks are worse for those who are infected in their first trimester.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scary. I was in the Caribbean last month and got bit by so many mosquitoes even though I wore Deet the entire time and was at a nice resort that sprayed for bugs every day.

No resort that bombs its guests with pesticides every day qualifies as nice.

It was a St. Regis.

[Anonymous]

There was a story on WAMU today too. Super scary!

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know if Cabo has this issue?

[Anonymous]

I'll just add that if you're thinking of a babymoon in Hawaii, do not go to the Big Island (Island of Hawaii). It pains me to say this, because it is one of my favorite places on earth. They are having a dengue outbreak there - the biggest in the state's history. It seems as though local health officials are on top of this as well as they can be, but even so, it will probably take many months to die out.

Im mentioning this here because it would also be terrible to get dengue while pregnant.