Zika Virus Concerns Result in Travel Clinic Consult

The glow from a sun-filled trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands disappeared when two couples returned to Nebraska in January.

Omahan Marcy Kolkman is pregnant with her third child and in her third trimester. She hadn’t heard the word “Zika” until after she returned home with her husband, Dr. Paul Kolkman. The virus, which is prevalent in the Caribbean and Latin America, has been linked to an increase in babies being born with brain damage and small heads, or microcephaly.

“I guess I’d say I was freaked out when I heard about it,” said Marcy Kolkman, 31. “It’s just kind of scary that there isn’t anything — very much — known about it.”

Marcy and her husband, Dr. Paul Kolkman, a Methodist Physicians Clinic general surgeon, consulted the Methodist Travel Clinic upon their return and shared their story with Omaha World-Herald reporter Rick Ruggles.