Zika virus found in Hawaiian baby, officials say

By Susan Levine January 16 at 6:56 PM

Hawaii health officials say a baby recently born with microcephaly at an Oahu hospital was infected with the Zika virus in utero.

In reporting the laboratory finding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state health department said the child’s mother probably had a Zika infection while living in Brazil last spring. That country is experiencing an outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus and, since October, has had more than 3,500 children born with microcephaly.

The rare condition, marked by an abnormally small head, is associated with incomplete brain development.

[Brazilians panic as mosquito-borne virus is linked to brain damage in thousands of babies]

Late Friday, CDC advised pregnant women not to travel to Brazil or more than a dozen other countries and territories where local transmission of Zika has occurred. The latest test results from Brazil have shown “increasingly strong evidence” of a link between the virus and fetal brain damage, CDC said. There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika.

Brazil mobilizes against outbreak of mosquito-borne virus

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South America’s biggest country has seen a rise in cases of a disease triggered by the little-known Zika virus being linked to a spike in birth defects.


“We are saddened by the events that have affected this mother and her newborn,” Hawaii State Epidemiologist Sarah Park said in a statement. The statement noted that neither the mother nor baby are infectious, “and there was never a risk of transmission in Hawaii.”



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