The virus was first detected in Brazil in April and has spread rapidly to 18 states.
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While this may happen for a wide range of reasons, including inherited factors, it sometimes occurs as a result of exposure of the baby in the mother’s womb to certain infections, contracted in the first few months of pregnancy.
The case, who has died, is considered by the health ministry as confirmation of the relationship between the virus and microcephaly.
The ministry said doctors had found Zika virus in the blood and tissue of a baby with the disease in the north-eastern state of Ceara.
Zika is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, also known to carry the yellow fever, dengue and chikungunya viruses. The victims were an adult male who suffered from lupus and a 16-year-old girl.
Also, the ECDC added that the Brazilian media has reported seven GBS cases linked to Zika virus illness, and it cited an earlier medical journal report of an increase in congenital nervous system malformations in newborns in French Polynesia following a Zika virus outbreak in 2013 and 2014.
In a follow-up to the surge of microcephaly cases in northeast Brazil and the source of the massive increase in cases, Brazil health officials believe that have confirmed the relationship between the neurological disorder and the mosquito borne virus, Zika virus.
In its statement, the Health Ministry reported two other deaths associated with the Zika virus not involving microcephaly.
The disease can appear to be harmless at first, causing a fever or rash, similar to Dengue fever, though milder.
The virus had previously been reported in Colombia and there have been suspected cases in the Dominican Republic. There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika. Until recently, no deaths due to Zika had ever been recorded.
The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) is again urging residents and visitors and visitors to the region to take every precaution to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes.
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Earlier this month, health authorities, epidemiology experts from Latin America and the Caribbean, and representatives of World Health Organization (WHO) collaborating centres gathered in Buenos Aires, Argentina to discuss actions to improve countries’ preparedness and response with respect to Zika, Dengue and Chikungunya.
