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– The Zika infection often comes with only mild symptoms for the patient, including fever, rash, joint pain, or conjunctivitis. Some patients don’t even know they have the virus because they have virtually no symptoms. The real danger is for pregnant women and their fetuses.

– Pregnant women can pass this disease on to their fetuses in utero or during childbirth, and the effects can be devastating. As Parents reports, according to Edward R.B. McCabe, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of the March of Dimes, in pregnant woman, the effects “can include pregnancy loss or a baby born with an abnormally small head and brain—a condition known as microcephaly.”