SCARY

Study: Over a Million Moms Risk Zika

1.65 million could contract Zika while pregnant.

More than one million women in Latin America could contract the Zika virus while pregnant, a new study by researchers at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Southampton finds. If the mosquito-borne epidemic continues at its current pace of growth for another two to three years, the research teams predict as many as 1.65 million women will contract the disease while pregnant, according to their study published in the journal Nature Microbiology. Women who contract Zika while pregnant are more likely to give birth to babies with microcephaly, a brain disease that results in a small skull. Earlier this summer, Europe recorded its first case of Zika microcephaly in a newborn.