CDC Updates Guidelines on Caring for Pregnant Women with Possible Zika Exposure

By Amy Orciari Herman

Edited by David G. Fairchild, MD, MPH, and Jaye Elizabeth Hefner, MD

The CDC has again updated its guidance for U.S. clinicians caring for pregnant women who may have been exposed to Zika virus. The update comes as the prevalence of Zika in the Americas is declining, making false-positives more likely.

In particular, the agency no longer recommends routine immunoglobulin antibody testing for asymptomatic women with ongoing possible Zika exposure. This is because IgM antibodies may persist for longer than 12 weeks, so testing may not be able to differentiate between infection that occurred before the pregnancy and infection that occurred during the pregnancy. Now, the CDC says, these women should instead be offered Zika nucleic acid testing three times during pregnancy.

The agency continues to recommend that all pregnant women be asked — at every prenatal visit — about possible Zika exposure before and during the current pregnancy.

The full text of the guideline update is available in MMWR.