“He said scans on Friday showed the girl was underweight for her gestational age and doctors did not want to risk further exposure to the virus, so they delivered the baby, the woman’s second child, by caesarean section on Tuesday”.
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A Honduran woman with the Zika virus gave birth in New Jersey to a baby girl with birth defects that appear to be caused by the mosquito-borne virus, one of her doctors said.
The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says there are now over 300 pregnant woman in the U.S. with “laboratory evidence of possible Zika virus infection”. Al-Khan said that you don’t appreciate the scale of this problem until you see, referring to an affected infant, and share the pain of what the mother is going through.
She traveled then to the United States to seek care for herself and her child.
Microcephaly is a medical condition in which the head is smaller than expected and it can lead to mental disabilities and developmental delays.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday they will test samples to determine if evidence of Zika infection is present in this case. They advised her to have the baby as soon as possible.
“There’s a large population in this area that comes from – foreign-born – that are living in the US who come from areas where there’s now an epidemic of Zika”, Wenger said. The letter is meant to clarify how low-income people covered by Medicaid can protect themselves so they don’t contract the virus or get tested and treated in case they do.
The first local case of Zika was identified in a male in his forties last month who had traveled to Columbia.
The mother was bitten by the Aedes mosquito and came to the United States for treatment after Zika symptoms were discovered.
The Zika virus was first linked to microcephaly in Brazil which now has more than 1,300 confirmed cases that it considers to be related to Zika infections in the mothers.
This is the second time an infant has been born in the United States with microcephaly linked to Zika virus. Their partners are also advised to watch out for Zika symptoms and ensure protection when having sex since Zika can be transmitted through intercourse. Babies born to mothers who have Zika are born with small heads and brains (a condition known as “microcephaly”) as well as other birth defects.
The Zika virus is spread by mosquitoes and can not be prevented or treated with any medicine.
Prior to the New Jersey case, a baby affected with Zika was also born in January in Hawaii.
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New Mexico State Public Health Veterinarian Dr. Paul Ettestad said the woman started feeling the effects of the virus when she returned from her Caribbean trip in early May.
