Zika infected Honduras woman delivers baby with birth defect in New Jersey

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The baby girl is suffering from severe microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems, after she was delivered through Caesarean section at Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, New Jersey, the news website NorthJersey. com reported.

US health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly. The World Health Organization has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults.

The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has now confirmed more than 1,300 cases of microcephaly that it considers to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. The unidentified premature new-born also suffers from intestinal and visual issues, Manny Alvarez, chief of obstetrics and gynaecology at Hackensack, told NorthJersey.com. “You could see the pain in her heart,” Alvarez said of the mother, the website reported. Hospital officials were not available for comment.

The unidentified 31-yearold mother was staying with relatives after she arrived in the United States more than a month ago from Honduras, where she was bitten by a mosquito, Alvarez said.

Zika is carried by mosquitoes, which transmit the virus to humans. A small number of cases of sexual transmission have been reported in the US and elsewhere. A case of suspected transmission through a blood transfusion in Brazil has raised questions about other ways that Zika may spread.