Читать книгу Child Development From Infancy to Adolescence - Laura E. Levine - Страница 233

In this section, we discuss several common diseases and medical conditions that can have a detrimental effect on a pregnancy. Screening for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is a routine part of prenatal care. Some STIs can cross the placenta and infect the baby prenatally, and others are present in the birth canal and can infect the baby during the birth process (USDHHS, 2015c). While bacterial infections such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis can be treated and cured with antibiotics during the pregnancy, viral STIs such as genital herpes and HIV cannot be cured, although antiviral medication can reduce the symptoms and their effect on the fetus (CDC, 2016p).

The virus that causes HIV is one that can be transmitted during the pregnancy by crossing the placental barrier, picked up in the birth canal when the baby is delivered vaginally, or passed through the mother’s breast milk after the baby is born. That is why it is recommended that HIV-positive mothers deliver their babies through a planned cesarean section and not breastfeed their infants (AIDSinfo, 2017). Taking antiviral medication while pregnant lowers the viral load in the woman’s blood. If she takes HIV medication throughout her pregnancy and her infant is treated for 4 to 6 weeks after birth, the infection risk for the infant can be 1% or less (CDC, 2017i).

A newly recognized threat to a healthy pregnancy is Zika, a disease caused by a virus transmitted by an infected mosquito or through unprotected sex with an infected partner (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, 2017). In healthy adults, the infection is mild and may cause a fever, rash, muscle pain, or headaches, or may produce no symptoms at all (CDC, 2016q), but when a pregnant woman becomes infected, the virus is transmitted through the placenta where it disrupts fetal brain development, resulting in microcephaly, a birth defect in which the newborn’s head is abnormally small and the brain is underdeveloped (CDC, 2017t). Microcephaly is associated with seizures, intellectual disability, vision and hearing problems, and a range of developmental delays (CDC, 2016j).

Microcephaly: A birth defect in which the newborn’s head is abnormally small and the brain is underdeveloped.

Fortunately, there are recent signs of a significant slow-down of the epidemic in the Americas and the Caribbean (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, 2017), but pregnant women are still warned to try to avoid being bitten by mosquitos and to use condoms with partners who may be infected with the virus. A vaccine is in development, but is not yet available to the public (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, 2017).

Microcephaly. Exposure to the Zika virus during pregnancy is associated with infants born with microcephaly, an abnormally small brain. Pregnant women in areas where this disease occurs need to try to avoid being bitten by mosquitos and to practice safe sex with potentially infected partners.

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