Should Zika Strike Fear in Parents this Summer?
Every mosquito season seems to bring a new concern for parents. So what’s the buzz this year and should you worry?
FOX’s Lisa Brady has “FOX on Family”:
As the kids head outside for summer fun or you pack up for that family camping trip, are you worried about Zika?:
(Dr. Siegel) “Let’s not keep going from one health scare to another, feeling that we’re all going to die off from something.”
FOX News Medical Contributor Dr. Marc Siegel says Zika’s birth defect risk is a concern for child-bearing women, but for the rest of us:
(Dr. Siegel) “It doesn’t get you sick 80 percent of the time, the 20 percent of the time it does, it’s not going to kill you, it’s not going to hospitalize you, it’s a mild virus.”
And we don’t have a lot of that kind of mosquito in the U.S. What about other mosquito borne diseases, remember West Nile and Triple-E?:
(Dr. Siegel) “They were never as big as we were hyping them.”
Still, he does urge parents and kids to use not only sunscreen, but insect repellent:
(Dr. Siegel) “You should be wearing insect repellent with deet, it will help you against ticks, which are a enormous problem. Lyme disease is a much bigger problem in this country right now than Zika.”
And overall Dr. Siegel says there’s enough summer worry already, like safety in the pool and on the roads.
With FOX on Family, I’m Lisa Brady.
