Here’s Everything You Need to Know About the Zika Travel Warnings

When Annie Lin, founder of the mom- and baby-products shop A Little Bundle, posted a beach photo on Instagram last week with a caption about her decision to cancel her upcoming trip to Tulum, Mexico, with her husband, the sympathy poured in—as did suggestions for alternate destinations. One of her followers recommended that Lin, who is 26 weeks pregnant, look into the Virgin Islands, and another suggested Turks and Caicos, two locations that are not associated with the mosquito-borne Zika virus. “We are in the same boat,” chimed in somebody else. The next comment: “Same here! We were supposed to babymoon in Tulum in April ”

With the CDC’s latest advisory warning pregnant women against traveling to some 20 countries with Zika outbreaks—including popular destinations such as Mexico and Puerto Rico—the epidemic has edged out nearly every other anxiety that expecting mothers must grapple with today. Zika has been associated with a steep rise in microcephaly, a neurological condition where babies are born with shrunken heads. The outbreak is most dire in Brazil, where nearly 4,000 cases were reported last year. It affects more than those who are already pregnant: The Brazilian government is urging women to hold off pregnancy, as are authorities in Colombia, Jamaica, El Salvador, and Ecuador. Meanwhile, the CDC has urged women who are considering getting pregnant to consult doctors before visiting the countries in the travel advisory.

The outbreak, more terrifying by the day, has led to no small amount of chaos and uncertainty. We spoke with two experts to find out what we’re really meant to make of the news, and whether we need to put our travel plans on hold.

Are people blowing Zika out of proportion?
TRISH PERL, M.D., professor of medicine specializing in infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine: Sadly, no. The numbers are staggering—cases in Brazil have risen 20-fold over the past year.

Are those of us who stay stateside sure to be safe?
TP: We know the mosquito carrying the virus can live in the southern part of the U.S. and maybe even pretty far north—definitely as far as the Washington, D.C. area.

So what does this mean for those traveling to a place like Florida?
TP: People need to be careful around areas where there are mosquitoes. This time of year in Florida there’s probably not as many as in the summer, but women need to be thoughtful and take precautions against mosquitoes. Maybe this is the time to go skiing.

Are we absolutely sure that Zika causes microcephaly?
TP: No, but the association is very worrisome. We don’t have cause and effect yet; now there’s just a strong association. It’s like lung cancer and smoking: There was a little while before we had absolute proof that one caused the other.

Is there a treatment or vaccine?
JOEL D. ERNST, M.D., division director of infectious diseases and immunology and a professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center: Not yet. We have a lot of knowledge that we think is applicable—for instance, we know that Zika is related to other viruses we’ve seen before, yet we’re only beginning to appreciate how complicated this is. Vaccine-making, at its simplest, is a process that involves careful testing—and in this case, testing of pregnant women, which further complicates things. It could take three of four years, and that’s a best-case scenario. We’re definitely not talking a few months.

What are the common symptoms?
JE: The typical ones are fever, joint pains, and rash, often with a headache; the symptoms usually last for under a week.

What if you’re not pregnant and planning on going to the Olympics in Rio this summer?
JE: Avoid becoming pregnant during your time attending and shortly afterward. I can’t say exactly how long after; it’s still unknown how long the virus persists after the symptoms abate. We don’t know whether once you’re over the virus, it’s risk-free or there’s some persistence and risk of passing it to a baby.

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