The Ministry of Health is investigating the cause of microcephaly in two babies delivered at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) this week. Doctors are trying to determine whether the birth defects are linked to the Zika virus or cytomegalovirus – a common virus that belongs to the herpes family of viruses – during pregnancy.
But the authorities are advising Barbadians to stay calm.
Microcephaly is a birth defect in which a baby’s head is smaller than expected when compared to babies of the same sex and age. Babies with microcephaly often have smaller brains that might not have developed properly.
The two cases aren’t the first in Barbados. The Ministry says that on average, two to three babies are born with microcephaly every year, but those are unrelated to Zika. And these are the first cases since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that there was a link between the mosquito-borne virus and the birth defect.
“And at this point we cannot say that the two cases we have identified are definitively linked to Zika…and we won’t be able to say that for a few weeks until all of the investigations are done,” Acting Chief Medical Officer Best said at a hastily called press conference yesterday with Minister of Health John Boyce and other health officials.
To date, there has been no increase in the number of newborns with the defect. Additionally, no children born to mothers who tested positive for Zika have been diagnosed with microcephaly, the Ministry said in a statement issued late yesterday.
Pregnant women suspected or confirmed with Zika infection are monitored at the high-risk antenatal clinic at the QEH, and these two cases of microcephaly were not among those being monitored.
Currently, 14 pregnant women have been identified with the Zika virus; of these, seven have given birth and there were no obvious birth defects detected in those babies.
There have been no new cases of Zika confirmed in Barbados in the last three months.
The Ministry has advised women who are pregnant and experiencing any of the symptoms of Zika – fever, rash, conjunctivitis (red eye), headache and temporary arthritis, mainly in the small joints of the hands and feet, to contact their doctor as soon as possible for testing.
It further urged pregnant women and women of child-bearing age to be especially careful, and to take all necessary steps to protect themselves from mosquito bites.
Read more: http://www.caribbean360.com/news/babies-born-microcephaly-barbados-zika-link#ixzz4GwCyFhrD
