US Health Officials Confirm Zika Virus Causes Severe Birth Defects
KABUL: (MEP) The infection with the Zika virus in pregnant women is a cause of the birth defect microcephaly and other severe brain abnormalities in babies, US health officials confirmed on Wednesday.
“There isn’t any doubt that Zika causes microcephaly,” Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told reporters in a conference.
Most outside experts were cautious about drawing such a connection but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it has enough evidence to confirm that.
Hundreds of babies were born in Brazil last year with microcephaly, a syndrome where children are born with unusually small heads.
The defects coincided with a spike in Zika infections, leading experts to suspect the mosquito-borne virus.
US and world health officials have been saying for some time that mounting scientific evidence points to the mosquito-born virus as the likely cause of the alarming rise in microcephaly in Zika-hit areas of Brazil. It had not been declared as the definitive cause until now.
The announcement comes at a critical time for the Obama Administration, which has been trying to get Congress to come up with funding to fight the Zika virus, which is already affecting Puerto Rico and is expected to hit parts of the United States with the coming of mosquito-friendly warmer weather.
Zika virus was first diagnosed in 1947 in Uganda, but symptoms have typically been mild, including rash, joint pain and fever.
