A neighbor, who is 3 months pregnant, asks to talk to you because she has felt tired for the last 2 days, has a headache, a rash, and does not feel like eating. You take her vital signs and find that she has a low-grade fever. She has recently traveled to an area where there is risk for Zika virus disease.
To what could your neighbor have been exposed, and how could the exposure have occurred?
What advice would you give your neighbor?
Answer preview
For pregnant women, contracting the Zika virus is undesirable since it complicates the development of the fetus. The fetal complications associated with the diseases are microcephaly, neuropathy, myelitis, and Guillain-Barre syndrome. The disease can also lead to stillbirth, preterm birth, and fetal loss. Perry et al. (2017) say that pregnancies at risk of Zika should be managed at fetal medicine units. Presently, there is no treatment for managing Zika among pregnant women. Therefore, women at risk of the Zika virus have to go for ultrasounds scans for further counseling. According to Perry et al. (2017), the women should be counseled on the option of terminating pregnancies infected by Zika since the disease causes deformities and complications on the unborn baby. I will advise the woman to go for ultrasound scans to determine whether the disease and whether the fetus is suffering from the disease to be offered
