NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials say tens of thousands of IUDs and other forms of birth control are badly needed in Puerto Rico to help prevent unintended pregnancies during an outbreak of Zika, the tropical disease linked to birth defects.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the estimate Friday. CDC officials said 138,000 young Puerto Rican women do not want to get pregnant but are not using effective birth control.
Zika virus is mainly spread by mosquitoes. An epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean is now hitting Puerto Rico. Zika causes no illness in most people. But there’s mounting evidence linking infection in pregnant women to subsequent birth defects.
Symptoms include fever, rash, joint pain and eye inflammation.
The CDC also released new guidance about how to protect against possible sexual spread of Zika, which recommends that women wait at least eight weeks after the onset of symptoms before trying to conceive and men should wait up to six months after the onset of symptoms before trying to conceive.
At first, it was believed that the Zika virus was only transmitted through mosquito bites but is now believed to also be transferred through sexual contact.
