(NBC News) The number of pregnant women affected by the zika virus in the United States continues to grow, now reaching into the hundreds.
Two hundred and seventy-nine women in the United States and U.S. territories have now been infected with the zika virus while pregnant. Doctors and other health officials are watching those women with the virus carefully, even the women who haven’t shown symptoms.
“Early on in the outbreak, we had hoped that women without symptoms would not have adverse pregnancy outcomes, and we now know that is not true,” said Dr. Denise Jamieson who works with the CDC.
The Centers for Disease Control reports that of those 279 pregnant women, fewer than a dozen have had negative outcomes so far.
President Obama got an update on the zika situation while meeting with members of the Department of Health and Human Services, THE CDC, and the National Institutes of Health.
The White House has asked for 1.9 billion dollars in emergency zika funding, the President saying, “Congress needs to get me a bill. It needs to get me a bill that has sufficient funds to do the job.”
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