Giving birth is a joy that cannot be explained, but the mosquito-borne Zika virus is threatening pregnant women in Brazil and others living in the Americas. Another thing that gives jolt is that there is no known cure for the mysterious disease.

Brazil has reported thousands of Zika virus cases since last few months. As per the country’s health authorities, more numbers of brain damaged newborns are taking birth in maternity wards. Health experts are worried because in most of the cases, Zika causes no observable symptoms, which means affected pregnant women have idea that they are at risk of giving birth to a baby with a rare disease.

In addition, test kits for Zika are effective in first few days of the infection, and if someone wants to check possibility of the disease, a cost of 900 reais has to be paid to private clinics. Many pregnant women at Recife's IMIP hospital are waiting for their turn to be tested for the disease. Ultrasound scans are the only way that can tell them whether they are going to give birth to a healthy baby, or one with microcephaly, a condition where a baby has shrunken head and damaged brain. As per the hospital’s records, more than 150 newborns have taken birth with microcephaly in the hospice since August last year.

A 40-year-old worried pregnant woman, Elisangela Barros, said, “It's very frightening. I'm worried my daughter will have microcephaly. My neighborhood is poor and full of mosquitoes, trash and has no running water. Five of my neighbors have Zika”.

There are thousands of women like Barros who are living in muddy slums of Brazil's chaotic cities. They are worried as possibilities are high that they will give birth to a baby with deformity.