Zika Updated Guidance for Pregnant Women - Public Health England

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Zika virus: updated guidance for pregnant women

PHE and NaTHNaC have updated their guidance relating to travel to areas where there is active transmission of Zika virus, including areas in South and Central America and the Caribbean. A new recommendation is that pregnant women should postpone all non-essential travel to those areas [1,2]. This reflects increasing evidence that supports an association between Zika virus infection and microcephaly in developing foetuses.

Where travel to areas with active transmission cannot be postponed, pregnant women and those planning pregnancy should avail themselves of advice from their healthcare provider about the risks that Zika may present before they travel, and in some circumstances after they return. The principal, protective advice applicable to all travellers, but particularly pregnant women who cannot postpone travel, is to practise scrupulous mosquito bite avoidance.

PHE, the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners have issued joint guidance for healthcare professionals in primary care who may be consulted by patients, including pregnant women, who are travelling to or returning from the affected areas [3]. This includes guidance on pre-departure travel advice, medical complications that may be associated with Zika virus infection, and management of returning travellers including assessment and diagnosis of patients with current symptoms suggestive of Zika virus infection. Additionally, new advice is available about Guillain-Barré syndrome, and also Zika virus and immunosuppressed patients.

Adopting a precautionary approach, guidance from PHE and its partners recommends measures to decrease the risk of male-to-female sexual transmission of Zika virus, particularly transmission to pregnant women and women planning pregnancy. This includes recommendations on condom use for men who have returned from affected areas (for a six-month period in the case of a male partner who has experienced symptoms compatible with Zika virus infection, and 28 days for men who have not had symptoms). Additionally, returned male travellers who are partners of pregnant women are advised to use condoms for the duration of pregnancy.

Links to all professional guidance produced by PHE and its partners are available onPHE’s main Zika guidance webpage [4].

1.1References

1. ‘Zika virus: updated travel advice for pregnant women’, PHE website news story, 1 March 2016.

2. National Travel Health Network and Centre (2 March). Zika - Risk Assessment.

3. PHE, BMA, RCGP (February 2016). Zika virus infection: guidance for primary care(updated 1 March).

4. PHE. Zika virus: health protection guidance collection (updated 3 March).

5. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-protection-report-volume-10-2016/hpr-volume-10-issue-9-news-4-march#zika-virus-updated-guidance-for-pregnant-women

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Edited March 4, 2016 by niman