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Brazil Announces More Microcephaly Cases Possibly Linked to Zika Virus
SÃO PAULO—Even as Brazil’s president pledged an “extreme commitment” to eradicating the mosquito-borne Zika virus, new government figures released Wednesday show birth defects possibly linked to the virus continue to increase, though by fewer cases than in the previous period.
South America’s largest nation is struggling to contain a brewing public health disaster related to the Zika virus, which many health officials believe is linked to a surge in cases of skull and brain malformation in newborn babies, a condition known as microcephaly.
Brazilian authorities believe growing numbers of pregnant women who have been bitten by Zika-infected mosquitoes are transmitting the virus to their fetuses.
According to the updated government figures, in the week ending Jan. 23 there were 287 new suspected cases of Zika-related microcephaly, compared with 363 in the week ended Jan. 16.
The government said there have been 68 infant deaths due to “congenital malformations” since October, 12 of which are confirmed to be related to microcephaly and five of which aren’t. The remainder are still under investigation.
The latest figure brings to 4,180 the total number of cases initially suspected of being Zika-related microcephaly since Oct. 22, when reporting became mandatory across Brazil.
The Health Ministry on Wednesday said that 270 of those cases have been confirmed to be microcephaly, including six caused by the Zika virus; 462 cases have been determined not to be microcephaly, while the rest are still under investigation.
Since mid-January, government officials have provided details on confirmed cases and cases that have been ruled out.
With each passing week, the government has come under intensifying pressure in its battle against the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits dengue, Zika and a similar third virus, chikungunya.
This week, President Dilma Rousseff said her government would step up efforts in combating Zika. The administration said it would dispatch 220,000 soldiers for one day in February to hand out pamphlets, part of its campaign to educate the public and enlist its help in exterminating mosquitoes.
The government also has said it will do everything possible to speed production of a Zika vaccine, although officials at Brazil’s leading medical research centers say a vaccine is at least three to five years away.
“The best vaccine against the virus of Zika is the fight of each of us, the government, but also of society,” Ms. Rousseff said after meeting in Quito with Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa. Ecuador is one of the 22 countries in the Americas that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms has active Zika virus transmission.
As many as 1.5 million Brazilians may have been infected with the Zika virus since last year. Officials can’t say for sure because not everyone who contracts Zika seeks medical help or has symptoms.
Even as the Zika epidemic emerged in recent months, dengue cases already had reached record numbers here. In 2015, the number of suspected dengue cases was 1.65 million, according to the health ministry, which started compiling figures in 1990.
This is almost triple the number of dengue cases registered in 2014 and up from 1.45 million cases registered in 2013, the previous record.
