Amanda Paradiz is 16 weeks pregnant, and she has a mission: to get through her entire pregnancy without a single mosquito bite.
Amanda Paradiz is 16 weeks pregnant, and she has a mission: to get through her entire pregnancy without a single mosquito bite.
It hasn’t been easy. Ever since health officials in July announced that four cases of Zika transmission by local mosquitoes were detected in a Miami-area neighborhood, Paradiz and her husband, Alex, have largely secluded themselves in their Broward County home.
They canceled a vacation, and have stopped taking evening strolls around the lake and swimming in the neighborhood pool. To walk the dog, Paradiz, 35, wears long pants and a hoodie, even though, at times, it’s 90 degrees outside. She has debated quitting her job as a sales representative to avoid coming into contact with a mosquito that might carry the Zika virus, which can lead to devastating birth defects — including an abnormally small head, called microcephaly.
“All it takes is one mosquito bite to change the entire course of our lives,” Paradiz said.
Now that a second zone of Zika transmission has been found in the Miami area — this one in Miami Beach — pregnant women say they feel vulnerable and frightened, and they wonder how to keep mosquitoes at bay in a state swarming with insects.
Some expectant mothers are choosing confinement indoors to avoid mosquitoes. Women who before wouldn’t dream of drinking coffee while pregnant are now coating exposed limbs in bug spray, a tactic recommended by health officials. Some women have even considered temporary moves: leaving their homes, families and doctors to stay with relatives or friends far from a Zika transmission zone until they give birth.
“Patients are very anxious, and they bring up the subject of Zika with me before I even get a chance,” said Dr. Elizabeth Etkin-Kramer, an obstetrician-gynecologist who is a past president of the Dade County Medical Association. “Before, this was an ocean away. Now it’s in their backyard.”
At a regional meeting of obstetricians and gynecologists in Orlando last week, Zika was the main topic of conversation, said Dr. Karen Harris, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Gainesville, Florida, who heads the Florida arm of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
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