Pregnant Connecticut Teen With Zika Opens Up About 'Heartbreaking' News

 

 

A pregnant 17-year-old from Connecticut has tested positive for the Zika virus, telling ABC News the news is "heartbreaking," as scientists continue to study the link between the Zika virus and severe birth defects.

Sara Mujica said she believes she was infected in February while visiting her fiance in Honduras. She started showing symptoms of the virus just days after learning she was pregnant.

"I had a fever," she told ABC News. "And the rashes were just growing throughout my body."

Fever and rashes are two of Zika's most common signs and symptoms.

Mujica then traveled to Connecticut and rushed to get tested. With the results weeks away, she went back to Honduras to be with her fiance.

Then, her mother called "crying hysterically," Mujica told ABC News. "She was like, 'your blood work got back and you were positive for Zika.'"

"It's really heartbreaking knowing that I got Zika," she said.

"It was such hard news to take in all at once," she said. "My first thought was, 'What am I going to do?' And I asked my mom, 'What am I going to do?' I still don't know if I should do an abortion or take what God gave me.

"It's a hard decision when something so tragic happens," she said.

 

Zika is primarily spread through mosquito bites.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Health, says that the Zika virus itself is usually mild -- but it is very dangerous for pregnant women and their fetuses, due to the risk that the babies will be born with a brain development defect known as microcephaly.

While so far there have been no locally transmitted Zika cases in the continental United States, Mujica is now one of 44 pregnant women in the U.S. who have tested positive for Zika after traveling outside the country.

The Connecticut Department of Health said in a statement to ABC News, "We have been preparing for months both to address positive cases and put measures in place to help prevent mosquito-related transmission."

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman Tom Skinner told ABC News this week that its focus is "on pregnant women and making sure they’re not exposed to the virus."

"We want them to avoid traveling to countries with Zika and make sure they know about prevention of mosquito bites," Skinner said.

credit Abc News