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Baby With Zika-Related Microcephaly Born In New Jersey

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A woman in New Jersey gave birth to a baby with microcephaly caused by the Zika virus on Tuesday, hospital officials said.

Both the baby and the mother are doing well and are stable, said Dr. Abdulla Al-Kahan, director of maternal and fetal medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center, reports CNN.

“The mother is stable, obviously sad, which is the normal emotional reaction given the situation,” he said. The baby was born via cesarean delivery.

The mother is visiting from Honduras and does not wish to be identified. She came in to the medical center on Friday, where doctors examined her and ultrasound screenings showed that the baby had “significant microcephaly,” including signs of calcification and dilated ventricles of the brain, Al-Kahan said.

When I saw her today, I was pretty much convinced this was a Zika-affected baby,

he added. Other tests were conducted to make sure there were no other causes for the microcephaly.

The mother came to the United States, hoping for better medical treatment because she knew her baby might have Zika-related abnormalities, Al-Kahan said. She is believed to have contracted the virus during her second trimester of pregnancy and experienced a fever and rash, which are both symptoms of the mosquito-borne disease. Zika has been proven to cause extreme birth defects.

“When she developed the symptoms, she was seen by an OBGYN who suspected the baby was growth restricted,” he said. Doctors at the medical center coordinated with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to check if the woman did indeed have the virus.

The samples taken from her were sent to the CDC and results confirming that she did have Zika came back Tuesday, Al-Kahan further explained. However, that was not a factor in her getting the C-section.

The mother was close to full-term and the doctors said her baby needed to be delivered. “There were a few reasons the baby needed to be delivered today, including low amniotic fluid,” Al-Kahan said. He added that babies who have microcephaly have “tremendous neurological problems,” and often do poorly.

In Januray, health officials said that a baby with severe microcephaly was born to a woman in Hawaii who had contracted the virus while she was in Brazil. Earlier in May, health officials in Puerto Rico confirmed their first case of a baby with Zika-related microcephaly.

Al-Kahan said this is considered the third case of a baby with microcephaly due to Zika born in the United States, and the first in the northeast. More than 300 pregnant women infected with Zika in the USA and its territories are being monitored as part of a national registry.

 

 

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