Now that the first pregnant New Yorker has the Zika virus, city obstetricians are being vigilant about informing patients about the birth-defect-causing, mosquito-borne illness.
Primary among their duties, they say, is warning women who are or who could become pregnant not to travel to the Caribbean and Central and South America, where the virus is actively spreading.
“They’re concerned,” said Dr. Claudia Ravins, whose ob-gyn practice in Forest Hills treats Latina patients.
“They’ll even say, what about [traveling] to Bogata as opposed to Cartegena,” in Colombia, Ravins said. “And I am saying I can’t get that granular.”
Three New Yorkers, including the pregnant woman, have contracted Zika — all from travel outside the US. Some 3,700 cases have been reported in 23 countries.
“Our main message is to warn pregnant women, and women trying to become pregnant, to avoid or delay traveling to any of the countries affected,” said city Health Department spokesman Christopher Miller.
In Britain, officials are being even more cautious — warning women that men who contracted the virus may have, in two instances, passed it to their partners via sex.