Quantifying Pregnancy Outcomes in Zika-Infected Women

The perinatal disease burden associated with vertical transmission of Zika virus remains incompletely defined. To assess pregnancy outcomes in women with documented Zika infection, investigators in French Guiana followed 291 infected mothers and their newborns through the first postnatal week.

Congenital Zika infection (confirmed with positive real-time polymerase chain reaction or anti-Zika immunoglobulin M in neonatal samples) occurred in 26% of the 291 pregnancies. Outcomes of these 77 cases included pregnancy loss (11%), severe complications (21%) including microcephaly, and mild to moderate complications (20%; e.g., isolated intracerebral calcifications, intrauterine growth restriction); 45% of the neonates appeared normal. Of note, sub…