Zika risk - feeling stupid and paranoid.....

[Masterofkarateandfriendship]

My partner and I have just returned from a holiday in Brazil. I was aware of the moderate risk of Zika before we went, and did a pregnancy test a couple of weeks prior to leaving and before getting a yellow fever vaccination. This was negative and I then had a period. Basically, I was an idiot and relied on not having conceived in 3 years and fertility tests in the past indicating that my hormone levels were too low to conceive naturally, so didn't take precautions as advised.
Typically, I have come back and just discovered I'm pregnant (despite not having a lot of sex on holiday!) Not sure how far on I am due to an irregular cycle, but the line came up immediately (before the control window even showed) and Clearblue said 3+.

I'm now totally paranoid and feel really stupid about the risk I've put the baby at, between having had a handful of mossie bites and potentially the live yellow fever vaccine that I got.
Anyone got any advice that doesn't involve calling me an idiot. Believe me, I'm being hard enough on myself as it is.

I'm not going to call you stupid OP, I'm in a similar bot myself. We missed the window for blood tests so I have my fingers crossed the 28 & 32 weeks scan shows nothing. I'm petrified I've harmed bub.

Get to your GP and ask about the blood test.

Thanks zaalitje - fingers crossed everything works out for you and your baby is well. Trying to weigh things up that so many people live in these areas and are at much higher risk due to poor sanitation and greater exposure, but it's human nature to worry. Making an appointment this week, so hopefully get my head around it then.

Congratulations, sounds like this would otherwise be excellent news.

Most of the holiday places have excellent mozzie control. Also there's a lot less Zika circulating now so long after the peak of the outbreak. Also, You probably took precautions to avoid dengue which is carried by the same species (?)

I'm afraid you're safest bet is to abstain from sex with your partner for at least a month (in case he got Zika) & then get a blood test to check both your antibodies in about 5 weeks time. Even if you're clear, your partner may not be, especially if you both were not taking any precautions to avoid bites and went to places with bad mozzie control.

I became pregnancy and spent the first half of my pregnancy living in a zika infected country.
The risk of a mosquito bite giving you zika is low and even if you catch zika the chance of it harming the baby is by no means certain.
There were several cases reporting where I was living of pregnancy women woth zika. All of their babies were born healthy.
The best you can do now is avoid unprotected sex with your partner for (I believe) up to 6 months to avoid infection in case he has it.
I don't know what they're like at testing in the UK. I was bitten at 14 weeks and had a test taken which was thankfully negative

I got pregnant in the 6 month window after visiting S.America. Quite honestly, my GP wasn’t very reassuring at all, and caused me a lot of anxiety, but she referred me to specialists at the School of Tropical Medicine and they were great. If you’re anywhere near London they run a walk in clinic and I’d highly recommend going there to put your mind at ease. The likelihood is that everything is fine, the odds are very much in your favour.

I got pregnant in Mexico and I’m not really stressing about it if I’m honest. Most cases of birth defects seem to have been isolated to certain areas and there is something to suggest that Zika may not be the only contributing factor.

I’m having the scans at 28 and 32 weeks as per RCOG guidelines but not I’m worried about getting any bloods or anything like that.

Thanks everyone for being so reassuring. My partner is more concerned about age-related complications (I'm 39) than the risk of Zika which he thinks would be very unlikely as we used loads of repellent and were pretty well covered up.
As it stands, he's not getting anywhere near me at the moment because I feel terrible, but good advice to be safe until the 6 month point.

Didntcomehere - wish I was as rational as you!

Honestly don't worry the risk is tiny. I'm sure there are blood test which can be done but gps will probably be reluctant now as it is not the huge outbreak that it was before
I went to Thailand last year when I was 7 weeks pregnant for 2 weeks I was paranoid about bites etc but still managed to get a couple. I'm now 30 weeks and baby is totally healthy x

Master I had a little look at the figures after reading this thread. For confirmed cases of Zika during pregnancy, the rate of birth defects appears to be 5% or less. I can’t find any documented cases of congenital Zika in the U.K., although I could be wrong. It’s also worth noting that Zika cases declined massively from 2016 to 2017.

Hope that’s a bit more reassuring.

There are VERY few Zika cases in Brazil at the moment.

But if it will make you feel any better, apparently there is some evidence that taking Azythromycin for a couple of weeks actually stops the virus harming the baby - but obviously for those who actually contracted the virus!!! You might want to ask a doctor just in case...

(Also the bite from the mosquito that transmits Zika doesn’t itch, so the ones you got are definitely just from normal mosquitoes!)

aac.asm.org/content/61/9/e01152-17.full

Thanks didntcomehere - I had seen that it had been downgraded to moderate risk, but the stats are not so worrying. Just need to keep positive. Early days yet.
I'm feeling a lot better about it today after reading all these replies and sleeping on it. onemoremummy - that article looks interesting - will give it a read and see what GP says. Unlikely my practice will test me though from reading their online blurb.

Just got to brave telling my mother now - she's the prophet of doom and worries about everything- she went on and on about the risks of Zika before we went away and wasn't happy about us going there because of it. Don't think that'll help with the anxiety levels!!!!

Don’t tell her master. My mum’s like that and I didn’t tell her til 12 weeks, I didn’t want daily (batshit) warnings about all the things I could do to cause an MC. No regrets about that at all. She was just as happy and excited to hear at 12 weeks and it saved my MH in a tricky time.

There’s no rules, it’s between you and DH, you don’t have to tell anyone. Wait until you’ve talked to the GP at least and know what’s what with regard to testing, and have hopefully been reassured.

I think you're right Reggae - gonna try to keep it under wraps.....she'll worry for the rest of the time anyway, so might at least spare both of us the misery!!! Thanks and congratulations to you - hope all is good!

Masterofkarateandfriendship Congratulations on your pregnancy, what wonderful news for you.

I am sorry you are going through the stress of worrying about Zika. Good luck with your GP - I hope everything turns out OK for you. I'm sure it will!

Would actually appreciate if you could post an update on how you get on with your Dr? I am going to a Zika area very soon and it's caused a lot of upset as we are TTC and obviously read everywhere online that we have to wait 6 months. I'll be visiting my Dr soon.

So I went to my GP last night Patience and she didn't seem at all bothered by either the Zika risk or the Yellow Fever vaccine. Says they have a university practice too, so are used to seeing patients who are widely travelled and haven't had any cases of Zika and thinks it would be very unlikely that either of us would have contracted it. She didn't know about extra scans, so I need to speak to the midwife about that, but there was no mention of blood testing.

I did ask her if she would recommend against going to a Zika area if I was TTC and she said she would. If I was you, I'd either wait the 6 months and have a stress free pregnancy or go somewhere else. I know how awful I've been feeling and I doubt it'll subside hugely until the baby is here and I know everything is ok.

Good luck and enjoy your holiday wherever it is!

Hi, sorry for posting a couple of weeks on but I wondered how you were doing? We’re in an identical situation as you only we visited St Lucia. My husband and I were bitten a fair few times despite taking precautions. We’re paying for private testing, as our GP and midwife seem very blasé.

Hey - we were going to get private blood tests, but when I spoke to the travel vaccine clinic, the doctor said that they aren't very reliable and can give false positives/negatives due to the similarity of Zika with Dengue fever.
We've got a scan date, so just going to wait until then and hope that everything looks ok. It's worrying, but there's nothing we can do and stressing about it wouldn't be good for the baby, so just taking it day by day and tbh, mostly forgetting about it due to feeling like shit.
Hope you get on ok and let us know about your tests. I reckon it's very unlikely either of us have been exposed to it, but it's only human to be terrified about the consequences.

Thanks for your reply. We had them last Tuesday and were advised that results should be here no later than 14 days after tests. I’m the same! Have days where I feel rotten and that’s the only thought on my mind, then something will remind me. Our 12 week scan is Tuesday too, so hopefully that’ll be positive. Take care and I hope you begin to feel better.

Hi, our results came back - neither of us were infected with Zika (were both bitten at least 20/30 times) and scan was perfectly normal too. Wishing you all the very best with your pregnancy

Hi there. I had a similar experience when I got my BFP. I had been in India for 2 weeks for work. Before I went, my dr said don’t go if you are pregnant and if trying, wait 8 weeks when you return. I did a test before I went and it was negative. I had some symptoms whilst I was away so did a test the way after I returned. It was positive. I was very afraid I might have zika so spoke to the dr and midwife I was assingned. They will not test you on the NHS. I therefore paid for a private test - £86 fo a blood serum test. It was ridiculous trying to find out from medical people the right test to have. Some people had never even heard of zika! The test came back negative and I have had 2 scans since and all is ok however I would pay that £86 again for peace of mind x

Hi all,

This is my first time posting on the site! Have been searching for support/similar concerns and came across this thread....

I went to Bali in December 2017, we were not TTC and I was unaware that I was 3/4 weeks pregnant!

I did get bitten badly :( from my research I am pretty sure I got bitten by the type of mosquito that carries zika as it was during the day, and it was a large black mosquito! I didn’t know about the risk of zika there, and as I didn’t know I was pregnant it wouldn’t have really concerned me anyway!

On my return I realised I was pregnant & my friend alerted me to the zika risks.

I won’t go into all the details but no one seemed too concerned when I mentioned it as I had had no symptoms.
I ended paying for a private zika antibodies test that came back negative and that put my mind at ease.
All scans have also been normal.

However I have now been put under consultant for a separate issue and he has now brought up the zika thing and is taking it VERY seriously!

He has put me in for scans every 4 weeks and was also talking about amniocentesis.

My fears have all of a sudden became very real again. I don’t know what to do. I am 22 weeks pregnant and terrified I have made a terrible mistake. I cant stop worrying and thinking I should have never continued with this pregnant from the beginning.

Am I worrying too much? What would people think in a similar situation?

I know I had no symptoms & my test was negative, but what if it was wrong?!
I know I got bit in a possible zika zone, and in the crucial first trimester!

I literally feel sick thinking about it every minute of the day right now :( :( :(

I honestly wouldn’t worry preg. Consultants can be quite alarmist about all sorts of things!

Ask him if his advice is following RCOG guidelines (hint: he isn’t!) assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/673088/Zika_testing_algorithm_for_assessing_pregnant_women.pdf

You’ve had a negative antibody test, anything more than that seems like overkill.

Thankyou for your reply! I feel a bit better this morning.
Yes I did think he wasn’t following he guidelines - as he actually printed me that flow chart out and have it to me!
He was very pushy about the amniocentesis, putting me on the spot asking me to make a decision about it.
I know it might sound crazy but I felt like he almost got excited , as if I was some sort of medical research case.

I’m going to see him again this week so I shall tell I don’t think it is necessary, and that I’m grateful for the extra scans & monitoring so we shall go with them.

I’m sure I’ll be fine. The rational part of my brain says I am & that I would have to be extremely unlucky for every scan and the test to be wrong! But then I can’t help fearing the worst

I am going to try and have a more posyive thinking day :)