First Zika-Related Infant Death in US Reported in Texas

Houston — The health authorities in the US State of Texas on Tuesday confirmed a Zika-related death of a newborn girl, the first of its kind in the country.

Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) said that an infant in Harris County who died shortly after birth had microcephaly, linked to the Zika virus, according to local TV station ABC13.

The mother had traveled to El Salvador during her pregnancy where she was infected. The test results recently confirmed the baby’s condition and link to Zika. The mother and baby are classified as travel-related cases, and there is no additional associated risk in Texas.

John Hellerstedt, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said that Zika’s impact on unborn babies can be tragic, their central mission from the beginning has been to do everything they can to protect unborn babies from the devastating effects of Zika.

Last month, the Lone Star state reported its first case of microcephaly linked to Zika, also an infant in the Harris County.

Currently, the DSHS is coordinating with the Harris County Public Health and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to follow the cases.

Texas, the second largest state in the nation, has reported 97 cases of Zika virus disease, including the two infants with microcephaly from the Harris County.

All Texas cases are related to travel abroad to areas with active Zika transmission. There have been no reported cases of Zika virus disease transmitted by mosquitoes in Texas, but the state is on alert for the possibility of local transmission.

Over the weekend, Texas Governer Greg Abbott detailed measures the state has taken to fund the prevention of the spreading of Zika, but said it is prepared to fight the virus should it become prevalent in the state.

“We have assembled millions in state and federal funds to help attack the problem,” he said.

According to the CDC, 15 babies have been born in the United States with Zika-related birth defects.

Seven women have lost pregnancies due to Zika, and these numbers could grow. Nearly 1,000 pregnant women in the continental US and territories have been infected with Zika.

Currently, more than 7,300 people in the US have been diagnosed with Zika, including 1,825 in the continental US and Hawaii.

US President Barack Obama has asked Congress to allocate USD1.9 billion in emergency funding to combat the spread of the virus.

In May, testing for the mosquito-borne Zika virus began at the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center headquartered in Houston, the fourth-largest city in the United States.

The center, which was approved for testing by the US Food and Drug Administration, can test more than 3,600 blood samples per day by using three new automated instruments and can detect the smallest amount of Zika in blood samples.

Zika is a disease caused by the Zika virus, which is spread to people primarily through the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito. The most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis (red eyes).

The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting for several days to a week after being bitten by an infected mosquito.

The virus was first discovered in 1947 and is named after the Zika Forest in Uganda. In 1952, the first human cases of Zika were detected and since then, outbreaks of disease have been reported in tropical Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.

On Feb. 1, 2016, the World Health Organization declared Zika virus a public health emergency of international concern. (PNA/Xinhua) JMC/EBP