D.O.H. Reports Three New Cases Of Zika In St. Thomas

ST. THOMAS — The Department of Health confirmed three new cases of the Zika virus this week, all of which affected St. Thomas — bringing the island’s count to 12, and a territory-wide total to 29.

Three weeks ago, the World Health Organization issued a new set of guidelines urging people living in areas where the Zika virus is circulating to delay pregnancy to avoid having children with birth defects.

Currently, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are the only two parts of the U.S. to have known local transmission. In the U.S.V.I., a majority of the cases are local transmissions, according to Territorial Epidemiologist Dr. Esther Ellis, speaking to The Consortium by telephone recently.

Additionally, the new guidelines affect millions of couples in 46 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The advice is an acknowledgement by the W.H.O. that with no vaccine available and mosquito eradication efforts failing to slow transmission of the virus, delaying pregnancy may be the best way that women in affected areas can avoid having children with severe brain damage.

The guidelines were originally published a month ago but did not garner wider attention among experts until Thursday, following a W.H.O. clarification distinguishing between people who visit Zika-affected countries and those who live in them. It says men and women of reproductive age “should be correctly informed and oriented to consider delaying pregnancy.”

“It’s about time,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, speaking to The New York Times.

Dr. Hotez, whose medical school is in Houston, where the Zika virus is expected to arrive this summer, has urged women in all Zika-affected areas to consider delaying pregnancy this year. “What happens when Zika hits Texas and the Gulf Coast this summer?” he asked.

Governments of five different countries have already issued the advice, including Puerto Rico, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has steered clear of this approach, concluding that governments should not dictate what women do with their partners in their personal lives.

The Zika virus has been linked to unusually small heads and brain damage — called microcephaly — in children born to infected mothers, as well as blindness, deafness, seizures and other congenital defects. In adults, the virus is linked to a form of temporary paralysis, called Guillain-Barré syndrome.