Doctors issue warning on risky Zika virus

On Saturday U.S. health officials confirmed that a baby born with brain damage at a hospital in Oahu, Hawaii, was infected by the virus in what is the first case of the disease in a birth on U.S. soil.

While the exact correlation between a Zika infection and microcephaly is still not clear, officials believe that pregnant women who are bitten by infected mosquitoes may be transmitting the virus to their fetuses through the placenta.

The baby likely acquired it while in the womb of the mother, who had a past Zika virus infection when she was living in Brazil in May. Brazil has now reported more than 3,500 cases.

The U.S. has warned pregnant women from travelling to a number of countries across Latin America and the Caribbean after new cases of the Zika virus were found. There is no medicine or vaccine for it. Hospitalizations are rare, and deaths from Zika have not been reported.

According to CDC spokesman Tom Skinner, there have been 14 imported cases of Zika virus among returning USA travelers from 2007 to 2014.

“We are saddened by the events that have affected this mother and her newborn”, Dr. Sarah Park, Hawaii’s state epidemiologist, said in a statement.

Reportedly, the woman and her new-born baby are not infectious, themselves, and can not spread the Zika virus to others.

Zika can be hard to diagnose, because its symptoms are similar to those of dengue fever, also known as “break bone fever” because of the severe joint pain it causes, and chikungunya, which first arrived in the Western Hemisphere in 2013 and whose African name means “bent over”, because of the stooped posture that the disease causes.

The Hawaii newborn “further emphasizes the importance of the CDC travel recommendations released today”, Dr. Park said. But mosquitoes who bite an infected person can spread it to their next victims. Brazil normally reports about 150 cases of microcephaly on an annual basis.

The countries and territories that are included in the CDC alert are Venezuela, Brazil, the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Colombia, Suriname, El Salvador, Paraguay, French Guiana, Panama, Mexico, Guatemala, Martinique, Honduras, and Haiti.

Health Minister Marcelo Castro said Friday that the goal is for the Sao Paulo-based Butantan Institute to develop “in record time” a vaccine for Zika, which is spread through mosquito bites. The Aedes species of mosquitoes are common throughout southern states in the USA like Florida and Texas. Suggestions also include wearing long trousers and long-sleeved shirts whenever possible and sleeping under a mosquito bed net.

After that, the incidence gradually fell until November, when it started to increase again, which is considered normal because warmer climates favor the reproduction of dengue-transmitting mosquitos, Aedes aegypti.

Although new test results provide new evidence of a link between Zika and microcephaly, it isn’t known if Zika alone is responsible or if other risk factors might be involved, Petersen said, adding more studies are planned to examine the link.