American Expatriate Costa Rica

First case of microcephaly by Zika in the country

The Ministry of Health confirmed on Wednesday the first autochthonous case of microcephaly by Zika.

The boy from an ethnic minority from Guácimo de Limón was born 20 days ago at the Calderón Guardia Hospital,”

said Rodrigo Marín, from the vector control department of the ministry.

The most interesting aspect of the case is that neither of the two parents presented symptoms of the virus, but the child was born with Zika, which caused the disease.

It was never recorded that the parents had the virus, but only 1 in 4 people suffering from Zika develops symptomatology, so you can see this is normal,”

added Marín.

In addition to microcephaly, the minor also had an auditory congenital malformation that is now under study to confirm it.

So far, this is the only case of a child being born with microcephaly. More than 132 pregnancies have been recorded in risk areas in the country.

Similarly, it was announced that there are already two cases of Guillain Barré registered in national territory, also related to the Zika virus which occurred in Puntarenas and Santa Cruz.

According to the latest epidemiological report of the Ministry of Health, Puntarenas is the canton where most cases of the virus have been registered, reaching 207 cases, followed by Garabito with 165, Orotina with 105 and Esparza with 100.

A total of 1,453 cases have been confirmed, 936 of which were reported in women and 517 in men.

In the case of chikungunya there are 3,215 cases registered this year, while dengue cases reached 20,456.

crhoy.com