While New Jersey is home to the first baby born in the continental United States with Zika-linked microcephaly and 18 cases of the virus have been diagnosed in the state, doctors say that for almost all residents there is little cause to worry.
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US health officials said in April there is no longer any doubt the Zika virus causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads and other severe brain defects.
A baby born in January in Hawaii had the first case of brain damage linked to the virus in USA, the CDC said.
The mother of an infant born in New Jersey with microcephaly said a doctor in her home country of Honduras told her everything would be “fine” after she reported having a fever earlier in her pregnancy.
The first reported case in the US was a child with Zika-related microcephaly born in Hawaii in January.
Brazil has by far the most microcephaly cases linked to Zika, but health officials expect more in all the countries being hit by the virus.
On Wednesday state officials announced there have now been 18 individuals in New Jersey – more than a third of them in Bergen County – confirmed to have contracted the Zika virus while traveling overseas.
Doctors explained the 31-year-old unidentified woman caught Zika – transmitted by infected mosquitoes – while in Honduras and that the CDC had confirmed her condition with blood tests.
The CDC has advised pregnant women to avoid traveling to areas where Zika is spreading, and to talk to a health care provider to prevent sexual transmission of the virus. According to the doctors, the baby is clearly showing signs of Zika-related microcephaly.
The birth of two infants on Oʻahu five months ago, in December 2015, to mothers infected with the Zika virus illustrated how little is understood about Zika, and sparked a sense of urgency among those who want to study and combat the virus. “In addition to their temperate climates, much of this region is also located nearest to the current outbreak further south in Latin America and the Caribbean”.
“I would like to emphasize that neither the mother nor the baby acquired the infection in the United States”, Piwoz said. But lawmakers have been slow to respond, and are now floating funding that’s about $800 million short of what the Obama administration’s health officials have said is needed to combat the virus.
Yesterday the World Health Organisation (WHO) updated its advice to recommend that couples who have been in Zika-hit areas should wait at least eight weeks before trying to conceive, to ensure the virus has cleared their bodies. Zika is transmitted by Aedes species mosquito carriers.
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Currently, all 16 reported cases of Zika in New Jersey are travel-related, meaning they were contracted outside of the continental United States and brought to New Jersey.
