Zika Linked Microcephaly In Panama

[niman]

They deny that baby has died microcephaly zika in Panama

Source: EFE  03/21/2016 24:41

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Panamanian Health Minister Javier Terrientes said e l newborn who died in Panama last week by multiple malformations was not the Zika virus. 

Despite that,  the authorities detected the virus in the umbilical cord " his death was not zika, s abíamos that (baby) came with multiple malformations incompatible with life (...) was not a death virus " , Terrientes said Monday.

Moreover, he told local media that so far the confirmed cases in the country are recorded in 149.

The owner also said the mother of the victim was never diagnosed with the virus, which could suffer asymptomatically as with 80 percent of cases.

According to official information, the baby was born prematurely at 31 weeks gestation, last Thursday and barely survived four hours. 

http://globovision.com/article/niegan-que-bebe-nbsp;con-microcefalia-haya-muerto-por-zika-en-panama

 

[niman]

Monday, March 21, 2016 12:20

Panamanian Health Minister denies that baby with microcephaly died for zika

By:   EFE

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Minister of Health of Panama, Francisco Terrientes.Photo: EFE.

 

The newborn who died last week in Panama week had "multiple malformations," including microcephaly, and his death "was not by zika" although authorities detected the virus in the umbilical cord, he said today the Panamanian Health Minister Francisco Terrientes.

 

"We knew that (the baby) came with multiple malformations incompatible with life (...) was not a death zika" said the minister in an interview with local television, in which he said that the confirmed cases of the disease in the country they are recorded at 149 today.

Terrientes reiterated that after the death of baby exams rigor, including the zika were made, and the virus was found in the umbilical cord, as already reported last Friday in a press conference the director of Health, Itza Barahona Mosca.

The minister also said that the mother of the victim was never diagnosed with the virus, which could suffer asymptomatically as with 80% of cases.

According to official information, the baby was born prematurely at 31 weeks gestation, last Thursday, and barely survived four hours.

http://elvenezolano.com.pa/index.php/actualidad/panama/item/16196-ministro-panameno-de-salud-niega-que-bebe-con-microcefalia-haya-muerto-por-zika

 

[niman]

 

Panama finds first case of microcephaly tied to Zika

Published March 21, 2016 

 Associated Press

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Jan. 18, 2016: In this photo, a researcher holds a container with female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes at the Biomedical Sciences Institute in the Sao Paulo's University in Sau Paulo, Brazil. (AP)

Doctors in Panama have identified a baby born with a rare brain disorder thought to be linked to Zika, the first such case outside Brazil.

The Gorgas Memorial Institute said they found traces of the virus in the baby's umbilical cord. The baby was born Thursday with a shrunken head, a condition known as microcephaly, and another cranial deformation called encephalocele. It died four hours later.

More on this...

• Over 100 Zika cases confirmed in US, CDC says

• WHO backs trials of bacteria, genetic modification to fight Zika mosquitoes

• What to know about the tropical Zika virus in Latin America

Like the vast majority of people infected with Zika, the child's mother never reported symptoms during pregnancy.

A spike in microcephaly in Brazil has led doctors to investigate links between the birth defects and Zika. But despite the mosquito-borne virus' fast spread throughout Latin America until now there have been no cases outside Brazil of infants born with microcephaly who've tested positive for Zika.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/03/21/panama-finds-first-case-microcephaly-tied-to-zika.html

[niman]

Birth Defects Tied to Zika in Panama

By SABRINA TAVERNISEMARCH 22, 2016

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A health worker fumigated in Veracruz on the outskirts of Panama City last month. CreditCarlos Jasso/Reuters

WASHINGTON — Panama has reported its first case of birth defectsassociated with the Zika virus, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday — new evidence of the epidemic’s potentially dangerous effects spreading throughout the region.

Dr. Margaret Chan, the director general of W.H.O., said a baby with an unusually small head and brain damage — a condition called microcephaly— was born at 30 weeks’ gestation in Panama and died a few hours later. Local investigators found evidence of the Zika virus in the umbilical cord.

Dr. Chan was providing an update on the Zika virus and its spread in the Americas.

Scientists around the world are waiting to see whether more pregnant women who become infected eventually give birth to babies withmicrocephaly.

Photo

 

Dr. Margaret Chan, the director general of W.H.O., at a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday.CreditFabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

“The knowledge base is building very rapidly,” Dr. Chan said. “The more we know, the worse things look.”

So far, a surge of cases has been documented only in Brazil. In most other countries where Zika infections have spread, pregnant women who might have been exposed have yet to give birth.

The virus is circulating in 38 countries and territories, Dr. Chan said.

“No one can predict whether the virus will spread to other parts of the world,” she added.

Brazil and Panama are the only countries that have documented microcephaly cases linked to Zika infection from mosquito bites, Dr. Chan said, but Colombia is investigating several cases with a possible connection.

Officials have said that if there is a link, as most scientists believe, they expect to start seeing birth defects in Colombia in June.

Dr. Chan said Colombia had set up “a very robust mechanism” to determine whether microcephaly in newborns there was linked to Zika infection.

Cape Verde, a small nation of islands off the coast of Senegal, reported a case of suspected microcephaly last week, and Dr. Chan said W.H.O. has sent investigators to help analyze it. The team includes epidemiologists, laboratory experts, maternal health specialists and communication staff members.

W.H.O. said last week that there had been 7,490 suspected cases of infection with the Zika virus reported in Cape Verde from Oct. 21 to March 6, and that 165 were in pregnant women. Officials said 44 women had given birth without any abnormalities.

In Brazil, the numbers still lack clarity.

Dr. Anthony Costello, the director of the maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health department at W.H.O., estimated that 39 percent of the approximately 2,200 suspected microcephaly cases that were carefully investigated, including with brain scans, were eventually confirmed.

Using that ratio and the current count of about 6,500 suspected cases, Dr. Costello said he would expect a total of about 2,500 confirmed cases.

“Given the rapid spread of this,” he added, “we must expect that burden to increase substantially.”

Dr. Chan said funding to address the Zika outbreak had been slow in coming. The organization has received about $3 million out of a requested $25 million, and officials are in “active discussion” over $4 million more.

“The situation is still pretty serious in terms of lack of funding,” she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/23/health/zika-colombia-microcephaly-world-health-organization.html?_r=0

 

 

Edited March 23, 2016 by niman