The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a new health advisory Monday for women who might have been exposed to Zika and think they might want to get pregnant.
What the CDC is discovering is those Zika antibodies that are floating around your body after you’ve been exposed can still be in your body more than 12 weeks after you’ve been exposed. For women who think they might want to get pregnant, getting tested before pregnancy would help their doctors know if they were exposed before pregnancy or during pregnancy.
There are two tests for Zika: the Zika virus immunoglobulin M and the Zika virus nucleic acid test. Both tests have their limitations, but the CDC is recommending doing the IgM test before pregnancy and in the first trimester as well as doing the NAT test every trimester.
In the U.S. both Texas and Florida have had cases of Zika.
As well, if you’ve traveled to these countries, the CDC has issued travel advisories on them:
Cape Verde
Mexico
Africa
Angola, Guinea-Bissau
Asia
Maldives, Singapore
The Caribbean
Anguilla; Antigua and Barbuda; Aruba; The Bahamas; Barbados; Bonaire; British Virgin Islands; Cayman Islands; Cuba; Curaçao; Dominica; Dominican Republic; Grenada; Guadeloupe; Haiti; Jamaica; Martinique; Montserrat; the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, a US territory; Saba; Saint Barthelemy; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Martin; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Sint Eustatius; Sint Maarten; Trinidad and Tobago; Turks and Caicos Islands; US Virgin Islands
Central America
Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama
The Pacific Islands
Fiji, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga
South America
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela
Kid being bullied? Watch out for drug and alcohol use later, study finds
A new study out of Boston Children’s Hospital, which will be part of the June issue of Pediatrics, looked at more than 4,000 students in Houston, Birmingham, Alabama, and Los Angeles, and had them answer questions about bullying, their mental health and tobacco, drug and alcohol use. It studied the same kids from 2004 to 2011.
Researchers were looking at if there was a correlation between kids who were bullied as fifth-graders, depression as seventh-graders and drug and alcohol use as 10th-graders. It did find a link.
From the “Peer Victimization, Depressive Symptoms, and Substance Use: A Longitudinal Analysis:” “Youth who experienced more frequent peer victimization in the fifth grade were more likely to use substances in the tenth grade, showing that experiences of peer victimization in early adolescence may have a lasting impact by affecting substance use behaviors during mid- to late adolescence.”
Notice it was about being frequently bullied, not the one-time incident. There was also some indication that the same was true for the bully and the bullied.
The study authors recommend that pediatricians screen children at their annual well-checks for:
- bullying
- depressive symptoms
- substance abuse
As well, those kids who do report bullying to their doctors should be counseled on how to get support at school and from their parents.
It’s all about facing the bullying early so it doesn’t become depression in middle school and drug addiction in high school, if not before.
Do your kids know what to do when there is a situation of bullying?
My daughter’s school just started an online form that kids can fill out to say what happened, when it happened and who was involved. Our kids might be more likely to report an incident when they can do it digitally rather than having to go to the office and get someone to actually take time out of their day to listen to them. It’s a step in the right direction.
Daughter hit puberty early? She’s at more risk for dating abuse, study finds
Another new study out of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, which also will be published in the June issue of Pediatrics, looked at puberty progression compared to other girls their age and incidents of what it called adolescent dating abuse.
Here’s what it found:
- Early-maturing girls were more likely to be seen as attractive to the opposite sex.
- Early-maturing girls had more dating relationships than their peers.
- Early-maturing girls had less time to develop coping skills to handle abusive behavior.
- Girls who had more guy friends were at an increased risk for abuse.
- Girls who were friends with older friends were at an increase risk for abuse.
- Girls whose friends were also being abused were at an increase risk for abuse.
While this study looked at almost 4,000 students who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, these students were in high school and middle school in 1994, when the study was launched and have been followed through 2016, when they are now adults in their 30s and 40s.
It would be interesting to see this study done on today’s kids who now have things like social media playing a huge role in social norms and how they view relationships.
