Two U.S. women who contracted the Zika virus while traveling out of the country miscarried after returning home, and the virus was found in their placentas, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.
Federal health officials have not previously reported miscarriages in American travelers infected with the mosquito-born virus while abroad. But there have been miscarriages reported in Brazil, the epicenter of a Zika epidemic that now spans nearly three dozen countries.
The STAT website first reported Wednesday that at least three U.S. women had suffered miscarriages, based on information from the CDC's chief pathologist. The pathologist told STAT the women miscarried early in their pregnancies but provided no additional details.
CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said he was aware of only two miscarriages.
Last month, officials said a baby born in a Hawaii hospital was the first in the country with a birth defect linked to Zika. Hawaii officials said the baby's mother likely contracted the virus while living in Brazil last year and passed it on while her child was in the womb. Babies born with this rare condition, known as microcephaly, have abnormally small heads and brain abnormalities.
More than four dozen Zika cases have been confirmed in 14 states and the District of Columbia -- six involving pregnant women -- with at least another 21 cases in U.S. territories, the CDC said last Friday. Frieden also said that one U.S. case of Guillain-Barré syndrome may be linked to Zika.
It was unclear whether the two miscarriages were counted among the six cases involving pregnant women.
Miscarriages reported in 2 U.S. women with Zika virus, CDC says
If the infected mosquito get transported up here via cargo from Brazil (food products or something like that), then it's game over.
