[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’Murcia ma tests negative for Zika ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY TIFFANY ANNE TAN
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
BACOLOD City – The mother from Murcia, Negros Occidental who gave birth to a child with microcephaly tested negative for Zika.
The Provincial Health Office (PHO) received the test result from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) on Thursday.
The mother delivered at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital early in September.
“Microcephaly is usually related immediately to Zika,” Provincial Health Officer Ernell Tumimbang had said.
The regional hospital took a sample of the mother’s blood and sent it to the RITM in Metro Manila for confirmatory test.
Right now the PHO continues to closely monitor microcephaly births in Negros Occidental, Tumimbang said.
Zika spreads through mosquito bites. Its symptoms include fever, skin rashes, joint pains, and conjunctivitis — in many ways similar to those of other more prevalent diseases dengue and chikungunya.
Their vectors are the same mosquito species: the Aedes aegypti.
The PHO also continues to perform emergency fogging and larvicide treatment to prevent the spread of mosquitoes, said Tumimbang.
While Negros Occidental remains Zika-free, Tumimbang encouraged the public not to be complacent.
They should “initiate self-protection” to avoid the virus, he said. They may use “whatever World Health Organization- or Department of Health-approved lotion [against] the vector (mosquito),” and “avoid places where mosquitoes abound,” he said.
Zika is prompting worldwide concern due to its connection with microcephaly and its rapid spread across the world.
Microcephaly is a birth defect where a baby’s head is smaller than expected when compared to babies of the same sex and age, according to the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But a new Brazilian study suggested the infection can lead to extensive birth defects that go beyond microcephaly.
Babies diagnosed with Zika were found to have a range of neurological impairments, including small skulls and brains, as well as an underdeveloped cerebellum and an absence of normal folds in the cerebral cortex.
“Microcephaly is not the only thing that happens with fetal Zika infection,” said senior study author Dr. Amilcar Tanuri, a researcher in the laboratory of molecular virology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Zika should be considered a congenital viral disease, like rubella or cytomegalovirus, Tanuri said. “Some babies do not survive and the ones that survive carry several developmental or cognitive delays or deficits.” (With Reuters/PN)
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
