Cuba reports first case of Zika contracted in the country

Cuba reports first case of Zika contracted in the country
HAVANA

Cuba's Health Ministry on Tuesday reported the first case of Zika
contracted in the country, in a 21-year-old woman living in central
Havana and who had not been overseas.

Cuba's four previous cases of Zika all involved people who had
contracted the virus while abroad.

Cuba reported its first case of Zika on March 2, making it one of the
last countries in the Americas to encounter the virus. All four of the
previous cases occurred in people who contracted Zika in Venezuela.

The Cuban woman first reported symptoms on March 7 and was hospitalized
two days later, the Health Ministry said in a statement read on state
television. The woman was diagnosed on Monday and remains in the
hospital, without symptoms, the statement said.

Zika, which is carried by mosquitoes that transmit the virus to humans,
has been linked to thousands of birth defects in Brazil that is
spreading through Latin America and the Caribbean.

The World Health Organization declared the Zika outbreak an
international health emergency on Feb. 1, citing a "strongly suspected"
relationship between Zika infection in pregnancy and microcephaly, a
birth defect marked by abnormally small head size that can result in
developmental problems.

However, much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the virus
actually causes microcephaly in babies.

Brazil said it has confirmed more than 740 cases of microcephaly, and
considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers.
Brazil is investigating more than 4,200 additional suspected cases of
microcephaly.

More than a dozen cases of sexual transmission in the United States and
France, and one case of suspected transmission through a blood
transfusion in Brazil, raise questions about other ways that Zika may
spread.

There is no vaccine or treatment.

The Cuban government, which has fumigated neighborhoods and homes for
decades to contain dengue, another mosquito-borne illness, put doctors
on alert for the virus weeks ago and ramped up mosquito eradication
efforts in neighborhoods in expectation of Zika's inevitable arrival.

President Raul Castro on Feb. 22 ordered 9,000 active-duty officers and
reserves plus 200 police officers to join the prevention effort and
asked all Cubans to clean up potential environments for the Aedes genus
of mosquitoes.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Sandra Maler and Leslie Adler)

Source: Cuba reports first case of Zika contracted in the country |
Reuters - http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-zika-cuba-idUSKCN0WI01Y