Babies exposed to the Zika virus may suffer healthcare problems long after birth, according to a new study, including ones that don’t manifest until years later.
The study, published Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, underscores the dangers posed by the virus, which is spread primarily by mosquito bites.
The CDC said that there were more than 4,800 pregnancies in the U.S. territories like Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands that had a lab result showing confirmed or possible Zika infections from 2016 to 2018. Puerto Rico was one of the areas hit hardest by the virus.
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Of those pregnancies, 1,450 babies were at least one year old and had some follow-up care as part of the study. About 1 in 7 (14 percent) of those 1,450 babies had one or more health problems likely caused by Zika.
“Some of these problems were not apparent at birth and were identified as the babies grew older,” the study said. “The full range of long-term health problems caused by Zika will remain unknown until these babies mature.”
The Zika virus is spread by mosquitoes and has been linked to birth defects such as microcephaly, which causes babies to be born with smaller than normal heads.
There were 5,716 Zika cases reported to federal authorities from January 2015 to Aug. 1, 2018, according to the CDC. A majority of the cases, 5,430, were due to travelers returning from an affected area, and only 231 cases were acquired likely through mosquito bites.
But in U.S. territories there were 37,262 cases, CDC added.
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