Share

Brazil Zika Outbreak: More Babies Born With Birth Defects

Cases of the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne illness linked to major birth defects, have now spread to 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, more than twice as many as there were at the end of November. “And that is a developmental abnormality of small brain and many of these children die or if they’re born, they have a real hard time following birth”. Those countries are Puerto Rico, Martinique, Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Brazil, Colombia, French Guyana, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela and Mexico.

Advertisement

DFAT recommends pregnant women consider deferring travel to affected areas given the seriousness of the possible risk to unborn babies.

The CDC has confirmed that a baby born in Hawaii with an unusually small head contracted the Zika virus while in utero. When traveling to countries where Zika virus or other viruses spread by mosquitoes have been reported, people are advised to use insect repellent, wear long sleeves and trousers, and stay in places with air conditioning or that use window and door screens.

Those infected with the virus usually experience symptoms within two to seven days after being bitten by an infected mosquito.

The CDC says people who do develop symptoms should tell their doctors where and when they traveled.

Federal health officials added eight countries to its travel warning list, which now includes 22 countries mostly in South America, Central America and the Caribbean. Other cases have surfaced in Texas, Florida and IL – all are travel related.

Outbreaks of the mosquito-borne Zika virus have occurred in areas of Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands and the Americas.

There is no vaccine against the virus.

But on Tuesday, Brazilian researchers at the Fiocruz biomedical centre in Curitiba announced it had found Zika in the placenta of a woman who had a miscarriage, proving the virus can reach the foetus. The connection to Zika is still being investigated, and health officials note there are many causes of the condition, including genetics, and exposure during pregnancy to alcohol and certain germs and toxic chemicals.

Advertisement

In Illinois, two pregnant women have been reported as having become infected with the virus.

A researcher holds a container with female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. This species transmits the Zika virus