Pregnant Connecticut teen tests positive for Zika after visiting fiancé in Honduras

A pregnant Connecticut teen has tested positive for Zika, a mosquito-borne virus linked to devastating birth defects.

  

Sara Mujica, who visited her fiancé in Honduras in March, said she thought her symptoms — rashes, headaches and neck aches — were related to fish she had eaten. But test results last week showed the 17-year-old had Zika, which has become an epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean.

"I was in a state of shock honestly," Mujica said. "I didn't really know what to say. I didn't know what to do. I just started getting teary eyed and almost crying. I was just trying to stay strong."

Mujica said she learned she was pregnant while she was on the March trip to Honduras.

Around the time she took the pregnancy test, she started feeling ill. When she returned to Danbury, she decided to get tested for Zika. An outbreak of the virus has struck countries from Mexico to Paraguay — including Honduras — in recent months.

Zika can cause microcephaly, a severe birth defect in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and brain damage. Researchers don't yet know the rate at which infected women have babies with birth defects.

Mujica, a devout Catholic, said she has decided to keep the baby, despite any possible risk.

"This is my blessing. This is my miracle," she said. "I have a cousin who has Down syndrome, and he is so smart, and l love him so much. I would never give up a Down syndrome child or a child with birth defects."

"I'm going to stay positive and hope my baby comes out normal," she added.

Last week, the state Department of Public Health revealed that a Connecticut resident who had traveled to Central America and became pregnant had been diagnosed with Zika. They didn't identify her.

Mujica said she believes she contracted Zika from a mosquito bite — and not sexual contact — while in Honduras, where her fiancé lives in the city of Choloma. She is among 44 pregnant women across the U.S. who have tested positive for Zika, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Tests have confirmed Zika in a total of 472 people in the U.S., with all the infections associated with travel to Zika-infected areas in other countries, according to the CDC.

With News Wire Services