In Brazil, panic over mosquito-borne virus
US CDC issues travel alert over Zika
RECIFE, BRAZIL — Jusikelly da Silva was full of expectations for her baby. This was to be her fourth with her spouse, Josenildo, and the couple had three other children from previous relationships. "All perfect, all normal," her husband said of their family.
Then, at the six-month mark of her pregnancy, Jusikelly, 32, learned from a scan that her baby had microcephaly, a rare defect that causes infants to have unusually small heads and can lead to learning and motor difficulties.
Parents such as the da Silvas are struggling as South America's largest country faces an unprecedented outbreak of microcephaly cases. Brazilian officials say the disease is being triggered by Zika — a littleknown virus borne by mosquitoes. The government has spent more than $300 million to battle the mosquito, mobilizing hundreds of soldiers in the effort.
Concern about Zika has grown so strong that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late Friday issued a travel alert urging pregnant women not to visit Brazil or about a dozen other countries in the region where mosquitoes have spread the virus.
In the northeastern city of Recife, Jusikelly wiped away tears as she cuddled and kissed her baby Luhandra, now 2 months old. "She will have some mental difficulties," she said. "She does not react like other children. She does not laugh."
The da Silvas' lives are on hold, the mother said.
"We stopped everything," said Jusikelly. After the diagnosis, the couple dropped plans to open a small bakery. "I couldn't work," she said.
The rise in microcephaly cases in Brazil has been startling: There were just 147 in 2014. But since October, 3,530 possible cases of Zikarelated microcephaly have been reported to the Ministry of Health. Authorities say the real number of cases is almost certainly lower, with some of those misdiagnosed as microcephaly. Still, officials have also reported 46 deaths of babies who had microcephaly that may have been related to Zika.
The Zika virus was first identified in a rhesus monkey in Uganda in 1947, but its initial outbreak in humans was in 2007, on the South Pacific island of Yap. It is typically transmitted to people by infected mosquitoes and can cause flulike symptoms.
But the virus had never been linked to microcephaly before. Instead, microcephaly was thought to be genetic or caused by diseases such as rubella. Researchers say they are now in unchartered territory on the issue.
"The disease in Brazil is behaving in a different way," said Camila Ventura, an ophthalmologist at Recife's Altino Ventura Foundation who has found eye damage in babies with microcephaly — another first. "We are running against time."
Brazilian authorities first confirmed the presence of the Zika virus in May. Some researchers speculate it may have been introduced into the country by a tourist attending the 2014 World Cup. It has now spread to other countries in Latin America, and Puerto Rico recorded its first case in December. A Texas woman who traveled to El Salvador has also been diagnosed with the virus.
The World Health Organization and the CDC have yet to definitively establish a connection between Zika and microcephaly, which has been reported only in Brazil.