Zika: What’s the Latest?

By Jessica Best, MD, YPS Section Chair
 
Are you wanting to travel to Mexico but still in your reproductive years, planning to conceive? Well, many of us in the Young Physicians Section are in the same boat. Zika is ruining travel plans left and right! There hasn’t been much in the news about Zika with everything else that is happening in the U.S., so I did some digging on the CDC website to find the latest guidelines for our young physicians looking to conceive in the near future:

• If you are female and traveling to an area with risk of Zika, wait two months after last possible Zika exposure to try to conceive.
• If you are male and traveling to an area with risk of Zika, wait three months after last possible Zika exposure to try to conceive.
• If you travel together, wait as least three months until after last possible Zika exposure to try to conceive.

Make sure you know other travel spots with Zika risk by checking this map. If you are in need of a beach vacation this winter and don’t want to travel too far, check out these areas: Hawaii, Bermuda, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, St. Barts, Guadeloupe, and Martinique.