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CDC: Zika birth defects have increased twenty-fold

Pregnant women in the United States infected with the Zika virus last year were 20 times as likely to give birth to babies with birth defects as mothers who gave birth two years before the epidemic, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.

The types of birth defects reported include brain abnormalities and/or microcephaley, neural tube defects and other brain malformations, eye defects and other central nervous system problems.

About three out of every 1,000 babies born in 2013-2014 had birth defects.

In 2016, it went up to nearly 60 out of every 1,000 completed pregnancies with Zika infections.

The CDC continues to recommend that pregnant women not travel to areas with Zika. About 80 percent of Zika infections do not cause symptoms, so it is hard to know if you have been infected.

"This study shows the importance of keeping a birth defect registry," says Dr. Peggy Honein, Epidemiologist at the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, CDC. She reiterated that Zika is extremely dangerous to fetuses.

A pregnant woman, even one without symptoms, can pass Zika to her developing fetus.

The Zika virus primarily spreads when a mosquito infected with Zika bites you. It can spread through sex with a man or woman who has been infected. Zika can pass through sex even if the person does not have symptoms at the time.

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