Zika

[itamia55]

Has anyone travel to some countries with low/moderate risk of zika virus during pregnancy?

I'm 7 weeks pregnant, my husband & I are invited to host a wedding ceremony for one of our best friend in Malaysia (in a hotel) in November, till then I will be 15-16 weeks pregnant. And Malaysia is one of the Moderate Risk country. I asked couple mums and they very super scared of this and that frightened me a lot.

Is it safe to travel there? Or I'd better to cancel our trip?

[Sisi14]

Hi Hun not sure on the country but they do say if you’re pregnant to stay away from countries that carry that virus. Xx

[Annh17]

I personally wouldn’t travel, it only takes 1 bite and you and baby will be at harm. They advise pregnant woman to avoid traveling to countries that have got Zika virus. x

[emmab178]

I wouldn't risk it. It only takes one mosquito and I worried about what soaking myself in deet would do to the baby aswell. It's quite a harsh chemical.

[jenna01]

As everyone else has already said - I wouldn’t travel anywhere with zika personally - I just don’t think it’s worth the risk.

[Baby24]

They say not to travel to these countries if planning on getting pregnant with in the next 6 months never mind if you are already pregnant... the side affects of the virus are really scary especially to unborn babies

[Amreenak]

Hey chick, I asked this same question last week. Firstly DO NOT TAKE THE RISK, as your baby is developing it’s very dangerous. Secondly some airlines/resorts won’t allow you to fly/stay incase if one bite & thirdly you won’t be insured. Please be careful if you do travel. X

[Rach2022]

Hi Itamia,

I can see where the other respondents are coming from, however from what I could find online there were 4 confirmed cases of Zika in Malaysia in 2016, and none since then. This means that when the virus was at its peak, if you lived in Malaysia full time you would have a 1 in 7.7mio (31mio people divided by 4) chance of contracting it. Of these four cases one was a pregnant woman who gave birth to a healthy baby without microcephaly, which is to say women in Malaysia are having babies without much issue. Personally I think there was more to the Zika story than some gove’s wanted to admit - namely that there were pesticides used on the mosquitos that were problematic, not just the virus, but nothwithstanding that opinion and assuming that if you did contract Zika you would have 100% chance of your baby having a birth defect the risk is still very small. There might be a few more instances of Zika that were not confirmed and I grant it’s not something governments like to own up to for fear of damaging tourism but even with a reasonable margin of error your chances here are very decent. Personally I go to the Caribbean regularly and would not stop due to Zika (or Dengue or chickungunya which is a very scary little-discussed disease!) - in fact I went to Barbados (where at it’s height there were 92 confirmed cases in 2016 out of a population of 250000 approx) in 2017 to visit my parents when I was pregnant and wasn’t concerned about it at all despite being a very risk-averse person. My baby is lovely and seems very healthy! I grant that there may be a risk here but life is full of risk, most of which you don’t think about on a day to day basis. Personally I think your extremely precious cargo is more at risk from wet stairs on the tube than Zika in Malaysia. Obviously the above is just my opinion - my main point is it’s probably worth doing your own research and deciding if the risk reward is worth it. You will soon have a very little one and not much opportunity to travel.

[Rach2022 in reply to Rach2022]

*Apparently there were 8 cases so one in 3.35mio chance in 2016

makchic.com/revisiting-zika/

This is an interesting article

[itamia55 in reply to Rach2022]

Thanks Rach. You are so far the first and only one says something positive. Really appreciated. I will ask GP about it and make an decision.

[Annh17 in reply to itamia55]

Best thing to do to talk to your midwife and doctor, then take they advise x

[Amreenak in reply to itamia55]

I would seek advise from specialists, at low risk countries you’re still at risk. Check with your airline and hotel before you travel too. X