Baby with Zika dies

Local mother was infected outside the U.S.

Zika has claimed the life of a newborn girl in Harris County, health officials said Tuesday, the first infant death in the U.S. involving the mosquito-borne virus.

The baby, whose mother traveled to Latin America during her pregnancy, died hours after being born with birth defects associated with Zika. They included but were not limited to microcephaly, a devastating but not usually fatal condition characterized by an abnormally small head and underdeveloped brain. The virus also can cause severe problems to fetuses’ lungs and eyes.

“We are devastated to report our first case of Zika-associated death, and our hearts go out to the family,” said Dr. Umair Shah, executive director of Harris County Public Health. “It’s a reminder of just how serious Zika infection can be, serious enough that it can be associated with death.”

Health officials gave scant details about the death beyond that the baby died several weeks ago and that testing more recently came back positive for Zika. Shah said the mother returned to the United States in her second trimester but didn’t know she was infected.

Zika-related deaths are extremely rare. Of more than 444,000 suspected cases south of the U.S.,

the Pan American Health Organization lists nine deaths, not broken down according to age group. There has been one adult death in the U.S., an elderly Utah man who had underlying health issues.

Miscarriage and stillbirths are more common. Of the more than 1,800 Zika cases in the U.S., nearly all travel-related, there have been six such losses during pregnancy, according to the U.S. Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention.

In addition, there have been 16 infants born with Zika-related defects, including a baby boy in Harris County in June. Shah said the local death represents the third Zika milestone in the disease’s onset in Harris County: the first positive test, announced Jan. 11; the first microcephaly defect case, announced July 13; and now the first virus-related fatality. Although each was travel-related, he called all of them reminders of the need for people to stress prevention.

Cases growing

Because of its ability to cause birth defects, the virus has been a cause of much concern in the U.S. since it began spreading in 2015 in Latin America and the Caribbean. The first U.S. transmission of Zika was confirmed in late July when Florida officials announced four such cases in Miami. The number has since grown to 21.

Harris County officials at a news conference announcing the baby girl’s death emphasized that Zika still has not been transmitted locally and that surveillance and testing of mosquitoes in the Houston area has not found any evidence of the virus.

The county is considered vulnerable to Zika because it’s home to the two virus-carrying mosquitoes species; the site of much travel to and from Latin America and the Caribbean; and rife with pockets of poverty — dilapidated housing, standing water and poor street drainage — that help the virus thrive.

There have been 99 Zika cases in Texas, 30 of them in Harris County. All are travel related.

Shah urged pregnant women to avoid areas of active transmission, such as Miami and many parts of Latin America.

Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor and Texas Children’s Hospital, suggested that more Zika-related infant

deaths globally may occur.

“I think we may begin to see many of these newborns with microcephaly and (other neurological defects) die in the coming year,” Hotez said. “Looking at the catastrophic damage to the (brain), I fear that this condition may not be compatible with life in many instances.”

Hotez added that he’s not sure many Zika-related stillbirths are being recorded by health care providers.

Expensive, lifelong care

Severe cases of microcephaly in infants can result in seizures, developmental delays with speech or motor function, intellectual disability, feeding problems and hearing and vision problems. Experts have estimated that in those cases round-theclock care may run as much as $10 million per child over their lifespan.

Dr. Kjersti Aagaard, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Texas Children’s Hospital and vice chair of research in Baylor’s department of obstetrics and gynecology, said the take-home message from the Houston-area baby’s death is the need for a greater understanding of the spectrum of possible complications from Zika, not just microcephaly.

Noting the virus can lower the amount of the mother’s amniotic fluid and cause abnormalities of blood flow across the placenta, she said Zika has been linked to poor development of babies’ lungs and ulceration of the eyes.

Harris County health officials declined comment on the deceased baby’s birth defects besides microcephaly, citing privacy concerns.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett stressed that county and state officials are monitoring Zika-related developments worldwide and “are prepared to respond to any local developments.”

He said Harris County would replicate everything officials are doing in Florida if there is a local outbreak. County officials have been engaged in spraying, cleaning up tire dumps that can hold standing water and conducting education efforts to inform people about how to prevent Zika.

“Hopefully, we don’t have a local transmission,” he said. “But if we do all, resources at all level of governments would be turned to it and it would be treated like any other emergency.”

Emmett said he still hopes efforts by Texas congressmen might loosen up money that could be used to combat Zika, but added that the county isn’t “sitting around wringing our hands waiting on funding.”

Congress blocks funds

Last spring, President Barack Obama proposed $1.9 billion of emergency funding to fight Zika, but a $1.1 billion bill stalled in Congress amid partisan bickering before the summer recess.

On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton urged Congress to cut short its summer recess, return to the Capitol and pass emergency funding to combat the Zika virus. Clinton made the appeal while on a campaign swing in Miami, visiting a health clinic in the neighborhood where Zika-carrying mosquitoes have transmitted the virus.

Zika emerged as a global threat in 2007 with a series of outbreaks across the Pacific, then started spreading extensively in 2015. More than 50 countries and territories, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean, now have reported cases of the virus’ local transmission.

The virus, which causes no or mild symptoms in most adults, is spread mostly through the bite of the Aedes species mosquito. There is no vaccine to prevent getting it.