Top Officials Believe Zika Outbreak Will Be in the U.S.This Summer

The virus that has been creating havoc to expectant mothers in Central and South America, the Pacific and the Caribbean is feared to hit the United States this summer, the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said on Sunday.

Dr. Fauci said that Americans should be prepared for local transmission of the mosquito-borne virus. Fauci, along with other public health officials from the National Institute of Health, guessed that there will be dozens of people who will be infected with the virus. Newsweek reports that there have only been travel-related cases of Zika reported as of the moment. However, although there have been a lot of people who fear at the thought of the Zika virus spreading on American soil, Fauci believes the outbreak will not be widespread.

"It would not be surprising at all - if not likely - that we're going to see a bit of that," he said. "We're talking about scores of cases, dozens of cases, at most."

The Zika virus outbreak was first detected in Brazil last year and has spread through the Americas lately. According to the Guardian, the virus has been linked to a large number of cases of microcephaly, which is a rare birth defect that causes an abnormally small head size that usually indicates poor brain development. It was also confirmed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that the virus also brings about other birth defects among infants born to women affected by it.

When the outbreak in Brazil first began, there were more than 4,000 infants who were born with serious birth defects. In February of last year, the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency because of the growing number of women affected by the virus. Health experts also believe that the virus can cause stillbirths and miscarriages while other infected adults develop Guillain-Barré syndrome and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, which are both autoimmune diseases that affect the central nervous system.