New 'Scarier' Zika Warnings In The U.S.

The CDC warns that the Zika virus is “scarier” and more dangerous than first thought. We’ll look at the risk in the U.S. and plans to combat it.

New warnings from the federal Centers for Disease Control this week that the mosquito-born Zika virus is scarier and more dangerous even than we thought. Birth defects. Brain problems in full-grown adults. Sexual transmission. The mosquito that can carry it is all over the Gulf Coast and can range as far north as New York. Zika is coming, say the headlines.  A potentially devastating health crisis, we’re told. Are we ready? Up next On Point: Zika is coming.
-Tom Ashbrook

Lauran Neergaard, medical writer for the Associated Press covering public health and medical research.

Kristy Murray, director of the Laboratory for Zoonotic and Viral Diseases at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital. She is also on the Texas governor's task force on emerging inifectious diseases. (@drkristymurray)

Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Associated Press: US officials: The more we learn about Zika, scarier it is — "The more researchers learn about the Zika virus, the scarier it appears, federal health officials said Monday as they urged more money for mosquito control and to develop vaccines and treatments. Scientists increasingly believe the Zika virus sweeping through Latin America and the Caribbean causes devastating defects in fetal brains if women become infected during pregnancy. 'Everything we look at with this virus seems to be a bit scarier than we initially thought,' Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at a White House briefing."

The Atlantic: A Zika Catastrophe Could Rival Hurricane Katrina — "Part of why the Zika outbreak has been so widespread in Brazil is because many homes don’t have screens on windows and doors. That’s true, too, in many low-income neighborhoods where the Zika risk is considered higher in the United States."

U.S. News & World Report: This Scary Map Shows the Potential Reach of Zika-Carrying Mosquitos — "The Zika virus is already believed to have caused thousands of infants in Brazil to be born with microcephaly, a potentially catastrophic birth defect characterized by a small head and often a smaller-than-normal brain. The World Health Organization in January said that 4 million people in the Americas could become infected with the virus in the next year."