THE TWO RECENT births of babies with microcephaly are not the first over the years, but health experts are trying to determine whether the abnormality is linked to the globally spreading Zika virus.
Health officials called a press conference yesterday, a day after the births, urging pregnant women to have ultrasounds and scans since only one in eight people affected by the virus showed symptoms.
“So there are seven out of eight people who could have Zika and would not be symptomatic,” said obstetrician/gynaecologist and neonatal and foetal medicine specialist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) Dr Na Tisha Robinson.
She along with Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Anton Best, Minister of Health John Boyce, consultant neonatologist at the QEH Dr Gillian Birchwood, Permanent Secretary Tennyson Springer, Director of Medical Services at the QEH, Dr Anthony Harris, and Chief Environmental Health Officer Desmond King, was part of a Press conference at the Ministry of Health discussing the births. Microcephaly is a birth defect in which the baby’s head is smaller than others of the same sex and age. (LK)
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