WASHINGTON — Last year they were pregnant and mistakenly told by a D.C. public health lab that they had tested negative for Zika. Now, these five women have given birth.
A D.C. government health lab told these pregnant women they were healthy, but one woman did have Zika, and four others may have been infected with the virus, The Washington Post reported.
There have been no cases of babies born in D.C. with microcephaly, a neurological condition associated with Zika where the baby is born with a small head, The Post reported. But health experts say other Zika-related birth defects might not show up for a year or more after birth — defects such as hearing loss, difficulty swallowing and cognitive, sensory and motor-skill problems.
The D.C. lab told at least nine pregnant women they had tested negative for Zika between July and December 2016. The virus testing scandal was made public Feb. 9, and more than 400 tests are being redone as a result of the botched testing at the lab, including the tests of more than 300 pregnant women.
Jennifer Smith, D.C.’s director of Forensic Sciences Department, said on Feb. 23 that the retesting was half complete, The Post reported. One case of Zika was confirmed, and eight other cases were not conclusive in the retesting, she said. In the cases that were not conclusive, the patients had indications or markers of either Zika or dengue fever, which is a similar virus.
Forty-five other labs across the country have been approved to perform one of three tests for Zika. But according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, D.C. is the only one to have botched the testing.
