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News > Latin America

Zika: Baby in Panama the First Microcephaly Case Outside Brazil

  • An Aedes aegypti mosquito is seen at the Laboratory of Entomology and Ecology of the Dengue Branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in this March 6, 2016 file photo.

    An Aedes aegypti mosquito is seen at the Laboratory of Entomology and Ecology of the Dengue Branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in this March 6, 2016 file photo. | Photo: Reuters

Published 20 March 2016
Opinion

The case is the first recorded outside Brazil and in the Northern hemisphere. 

Panama registered its first case of the birth defect microcephaly, which has links to the Zika virus, on Saturday.

The Gorgas Memorial Institute in the Central American country said they found cases of the mosquito borne Zika virus in the baby's umbilical cord and that baby was born with an underdeveloped brain and an abnormally small head which are common traits of the condition. 

The child died four hours after being born and has become the first case of the rare defect in the Northern Hemisphere.

RELATED: WHO: 'Very Real Possibility' Zika Virus Linked to Birth Defect 

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Zika a global public health organization in February over its links to microcephaly and expects to confirm that the virus causes the condition within the next four to six months.

Brazil has reported over a million cases of the Zika virus and was the only country to have recorded infants born with microcephaly who tested positive for Zika until now.

The latest outbreak of the Zika originated in northeastern Brazil towards the end of 2015. Brazilian authorities have recorded 860 cases of microcephaly.

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