High percentage of Americans isn’t aware of the general facts about the Zika virus which has led to serious health issues in many regions across Americas. Zika has been spreading across the Americas at a very fast pace and could debut in the continental US in summer.

As per a survey done on 1,275 adults from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the National Public Health Information Coalition, 87% people are aware that mosquitoes spread Zika, roughly one in three people are mistaken that it can also be spread through coughing or sneezing, just like a cold.

Gillian SteelFisher, director of the poll and a research scientist in the department of health policy and management at the Harvard Chan School, said that such misperceptions regarding Zika virus transmission may see people take needless or unsuitable precautions as they have noted such a thing in other types of outbreaks.

Doctors have confirmed that expectant women and their babies are most vulnerable to Zika, which has been associated with a disturbing rise in birth defects in Brazil. Even then, the scenario is like this that the adults living along with someone who is expecting or looking forward to conceive have quite little idea about Zika.

The survey found that out of people in households with someone pregnant or considering pregnancy, 23% weren’t aware about the association between the mosquito-spreading virus and microcephaly, a condition wherein babies take birth with strangely tiny heads and most of the times with underdeveloped brain.

There were 42% people who didn't know that the virus can be transmitted sexually; about 20% thought that there was a vaccine that can prevent Zika; and 25% have had misconception that the people who contract the virus most probably show symptoms.