Looming Zika Infant Epidemic

We have been warned that Zika is coming, that it will spread — and we’ve also been warned we’re not taking the virus seriously enough. Americans continue to go about their daily lives in Zika zones and have unprotected sex with partners who are potentially infected.

“This virus presents an extraordinary challenge to obstetricians and to our patients,” said Charles Lockwood, senior vice president of University of South Florida Health, at a forum on Zika last week in Tampa. “I think it is the greatest threat to the well-being of American babies since polio. And I hope that turns out to be hyperbole, but I don’t think it will be,” WMNF radio reported, linking to an audio file of Lockwood’s statements.

Infants born with microcephaly could cost upwards of $10 million to care for during their lives.

The comments come as U.S. health experts release heartbreaking numbers. As many as 270 babies in Puerto Rico may be born with microcephaly caused by Zika infections in their mothers during pregnancy — and that is just in this first round of infection. The estimate, according to Reuters, is the first to project the potential impact of Zika on Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory located in the Caribbean that has been hit hard by the outbreak.

As of Aug. 12, Puerto Rico had 10,690 laboratory-confirmed cases of Zika, including 1,035 pregnant women, according to HHS.gov. The rising rate of infections prompted the U.S. government to declare a state of public health emergency for Puerto Rico.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been working closely with the Puerto Rico Department of Health to reduce the incidence or mitigate the impact of Zika infection, particularly in pregnant women, according to Dr. Margaret Honein, chief of the birth defects branch at the CDC.

Honein warns the projected number of infants affected does not paint the entire Zika picture — the virus is also linked to a number of other devastating birth defects, including various brain abnormalities, limb joint deformities, club foot, deafness, and eye abnormalities.

The projected number of infants affected does not paint the entire Zika picture.

“It’s going to be very important to follow-up on these infants,” Honein told Reuters. “I think it’s critically important that we do everything we can to prevent Zika virus during pregnancy, and to minimize this very severe and devastating outcome.”

While the number of children affected by Zika in Puerto Rico is only an estimate right now, health officials felt it was important to release the data to help the country plan for services these babies will need. Current estimates are that infants born with microcephaly could cost upwards of $10 million to care for throughout the course of their lives.

“These babies will cost tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars to raise,” said Dr. David Gortler, a pharmacology expert and Food and Drug Administration policy expert at FormerFDA.com, in an earlier interview with LifeZette. “Whether they’re Americans or they’re here from another country or they’re legal or illegal, it’s going to be an enormous health care and taxpayer burden.”

Related: Zika Vaccine Can’t Save Us

The projected number of Zika-infected infants for Puerto Rico alone comes at a time that Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warns most other Gulf States are vulnerable to the virus — and that there most likely will be new cases in Texas and Louisiana.

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That news, however, shouldn’t come as much of a shock to federal, state, or local health officials or residents — the CDC has predicted since earlier this year where the virus most likely will spread.