The First Zika-Affected Baby Born In New York Area, Mother Was So Devastated

First Posted: Jun 03, 2016 05:42 AM EDT
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Doctors gave the details of the devastating news of a woman they are treating, who delivered a baby girl infected by Zika virus. The baby has severe birth defects, with microcephaly that is caused by Zika virus and structural abnormalities of the eye. She is also suffering from intestinal issues.

Abdulla Al-Khan, a specialist in maternal and fetal medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey said that the mother is trying her best to cope with this emotionally and described her as sad, according to Washington Post.

The mother, 31, was pregnant then and had developed a rash in Honduras in December. She consulted her doctor right away. She told her gynecologist that she had an allergic episode. On the other hand, her grandmother, a microbiologist, sent a blood sample to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They found out that woman was infected with the Zika virus. The woman believed that she acquired the virus through a mosquito bite yet she was not sure.

She traveled then to the United States to seek care for herself and her child. She met the team from Hackensack center. They found out in the imaging that the baby had microcephaly. She was also underweight. They counseled her to have the baby soon.

She delivered the baby via Caesarean section at 35 weeks without complications. They described the baby as relatively stable but the mother is troubled by the child's prognosis. Al-Khan said that you don't appreciate the scale of this problem until you see, referring to an affected infant, and share the pain of what the mother is going through.

According to ABC News, the CDC was examining about 157 pregnant women in U.S. states and 122 pregnant women in U.S. territories, who might be infected by Zika virus.

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