ZIKAction has completed a number of research activities with the goal of improving our understanding of the ZIKV infection in pregnancy, particularly the pregnancy, maternal and infant outcomes associated with maternal infection in the antenatal period, including vertical transmission of ZIKV.
We conducted prospective cohort studies in Jamaica and Haiti, harmonized with other EU-funded ZIKV consortia, carried out a pilot study of an mHealth intervention and developed innovative approaches for the statistical analysis of data on outcomes of ZIKV infection in pregnancy.
Early in the ZIKAction project, it became clear that the incidence of ZIKV in South America and the Caribbean was in decline as the 2016 epidemics waned. This contributed to our decision to not only investigate ZIKV infection in pregnancy in our cohort studies, but also Dengue virus (DENV) and Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), too add value to the cohorts and because evidence on vertical transmission and pregnancy outcomes for these arboviruses is relatively limited.
