Zika Virus: Brazil Confirms Link Between Infection And Deformities In Newborns

This is the first time Zika has been detected in CARICOM, leading CARPHA’s executive director, Dr James Hospedales, to emphasize the need for prevention and control measures to be taken in order to prevent transmission of the virus.

An increase in the number of cases of microencephalitis, the inflammation of the brain, which in infections usually involves the central nervous system, has been associated to the Zika Fever. They recommend that all patients with Zika virus infection who have worsening conditions be treated with the same protocols used for severe dengue cases.

Jamaica’s health ministry says there has been no case of the Zika virus here although cases have been detected in the Caribbean.

Doctors had found Zika virus in the blood and tissue of a baby with micro-encephalitis in the north-eastern state of Ceara, the ministry said, and officials have issued warnings to women to think carefully about getting pregnant at the moment in areas where there are Zika fever cases.

Zika is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, also known to carry the yellow fever, dengue and chikungunya viruses.

The decision was made a day after the Ministry of Heath said that there is a relation between the microcephaly epidemics in the Northeast of Brazil and the zika virus, transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. The victims were an adult male who suffered from lupus and a 16-year-old girl.

Zik V symptoms-fever, muscle and joint pain, headache, nausea, vomiting and rash-last approximately four to seven days, and are similar to dengue and Chikungunya.

 The state of Pernambuco has a population of over 9.2 million people, the seventh most populous state of Brazil.

Mexican authorities say that the possibility of Zika cases spreading in that country within the coming weeks and months is high.

Most cases of micro-encephalitis have been in the north-east of Brazil but cases also rapidly appeared in the south-east, including the states of Rio and Sao Paulo.

In an Nov 27 epidemiological update, the ECDC said the first two locally acquired cases have been reported from Mexico, one from Chiapas state, in the southeastern part of the country, and the other from Nuevo Leon state, located in the northeastern region.

An increase in deformities of newborns in Brazil is caused by infection from Zika virus that mothers contract during the first few months of pregnancy, the Brazilian Health Ministry announced Saturday.