CDC Zika Response Efforts: Telebriefing Updates
- On March 11, 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held a telebriefing to provide an update on the agency's response to the Zika virus outbreak, which...
- Lyle Petersen, director of CDC's Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, opened the briefing by reviewing laboratory testing conducted on samples from Brazil, where the virus had been linked to...
- Cynthia Moore, director of CDC's Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, joined Dr.
On March 11, 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held a telebriefing to provide an update on the agency’s response to the Zika virus outbreak, which was spreading rapidly across the Americas and raising serious concerns about its impact on pregnant women and fetal development.
Dr. Lyle Petersen, director of CDC’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, opened the briefing by reviewing laboratory testing conducted on samples from Brazil, where the virus had been linked to a surge in cases of microcephaly and other birth defects. He emphasized that CDC scientists had confirmed the presence of Zika virus in tissue samples from infants with microcephaly and from pregnancies that ended in miscarriage, strengthening the evidence of a causal relationship between maternal infection and adverse fetal outcomes.