CAMBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM - DECEMBER 09: Vials containing biological samples are stored on ice to keep them fresh before being analysed at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute on December 9, 2014 in Cambridge, England. Cancer Research UK is the world's leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research. Its vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured. They have saved millions of lives by discovering new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, and as such the survival rate in the UK has doubled in the last 40 years. Cancer Research UK funds over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses across the UK, more than 33,000 patients who join clinical trials each year and a further 40,000 volunteers that give their time to support the work. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images/Cancer Research UK)

Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

The Zika virus, which has spread across a large part of Latin America, is the cause of abnormally small heads in newborn babies, a condition known as microcephaly, Brazil’s Health Ministry confirmed Saturday.

Since last July, at least 739 cases of babies born with microcephaly have been detected in Brazil, a number five times greater than usually occurs in an entire year.

A laboratory exam of a baby with microcephaly and other congenital illnesses performed at the Evandro Chagas Institute, known for its groundbreaking studies of tropical diseases and located in Belen in the northern Brazilian state of Para, confirmed that the newborn had the Zika virus.

The baby born in the northeastern state of Ceara died, bringing to three the number of deaths confirmed to have been caused by Zika in this country, following the decease of a man suffering from lupus who lived in Sao Luis in the northeastern state of Maranhao, and a boy of 16 who lived in Benevides, Para state.

“This is an unprecedented situation in world scientific research”, the Health Ministry said in a communique, adding that the work must continue to find answers to questions like how the virus is transmitted, how it acts on the human organism and how it infects a fetus.

Preliminary analyses suggest that the greatest risk of contagion occurs during the first three months of pregnancy, the source said.

The Health Ministry stepped up its call for a “national mobilization” to contain the virus-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquito, responsible not only for the spread of Zika but also of dengue fever and Chikungunya.

The Zika, endemic to West Africa, has symptoms similar to those of dengue and Chikungunya, but up to now was considered less dangerous, so that reporting it is not obligatory in Brazil.

According to the Health Ministry’s latest official bulletin, 199 municipalities around Brazil, particularly in the northeast, southeast and Amazon regions, run the risk of being hit by these diseases in the coming months.

Source: foxnews

Facebook Comments