US doctors urged to test some babies for Zika virus

WASHINGTON — Federal health officials, scrambling to respond to the latest public health crisis, urged doctors Tuesday to test newborns who show signs of the Zika virus.

In new interim guidelines, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention told health care providers in the United States to work closely with mothers to track down babies possibly suffering from the rapidly spreading virus. The guidelines have special application in South Florida, where mosquitoes are a part of daily life.

Doctors and nurses are advised to test infants born to mothers with positive or inconclusive tests for the Zika virus as well as infants with microcephaly or who show signs of brain calcification caused by the tropical disease.

The warnings will hit home in Florida, which health officials see as vulnerable to the disease.

“Many experts, including the CDC, have warned those in the south, particularly Florida, that there is great risk for terrible consequences from Zika virus,” wrote Walter J. Tabachnick, former director of the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, in an opinion piece published in the Miami Herald.

Zika, which once was considered a relatively rare and minor virus, is thought to be responsible for a huge increase in the number of children in Brazil born with underdeveloped heads. So severe is the concern that women in El Salvador have been told not to get pregnant until 2018.

U.S. health officials previously issued guidance for doctors whose patients may have traveled to regions affected by the virus.

Doctors should ask women about any travel during their pregnancy and certain symptoms. If needed, they should be tested for the virus.