First baby born with ZIKA related microcephaly in Continental US

Tuesday saw the birth of first baby born with Zika related microcephaly at the  Hackensack University Medical Center, New Jersey. This is the second known case of a baby born with Zika-related birth defects in the United States. The first baby was born in Hawaii.

The mother is from Honduras and travelled to US to her relatives in hope of better medical care. Doctors in US believe that she contracted the disease probably in second trimester when she had fever and rash, which are symptoms of viral infection.

Her OBGYN  in Honduras suspected that she  had a baby with IUGR  and coordinated with CDC to send the samples for testing. As expected the results came back positive.

A last trimester ultrasound  revealed that baby had abnormalities including severe microcephaly, calcification of the brain, bowel problems and restricted growth.

Baby was delivered by emergency C-section and also suspected to suffer from other problems.

Honduras is one of half a dozen Latin American and Caribbean countries where abortion is not legal with no exceptions, not even to save a woman’s life, according to reproductive rights advocacy groups.

 As of May 12, 2016, the two Zika virus infection surveillance systems are monitoring 157 pregnant women in the U.S. states and 122 pregnant women in the U.S. territories with laboratory evidence of possible Zika virus infection.  That is a total of 279 pregnant women in U.S. states and territories who are followed closely as a part of national registry.

Till date almost 600 cases of Zika have been diagnosed in the US, but all sufferers have travelled to an infected country and none of them got infected in US.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), women planning to become pregnant should wait at least eight weeks before trying to conceive if they or their partner live in or are returning from Zika virus hotspots.

The case comes at a time when Congress has yet to approve new funding to fight the virus, despite months of White House pressure. Congressional Republicans have rejected the White House’s request for $1.9 billion in new funds. 

References:

http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/s0520-pregnant-women-zika.html

http://www.cdc.gov/zika/hc-providers/registry.html