Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
06/23/2016
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.
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Agency Brazil
Baby with microcephaly Sumaia Villela / Agency Brazil
The Ministry of Health confirmed the diagnosis of microcephaly and other changes in the nervous system in 35 babies last week, all suggestive of having been caused by congenital infection. In all, 1,616 cases are now recorded in October last year until June 18.
According to the folder, there are 3,007 babies with suspected defects that had not yet completed the tests for accurate diagnosis. 40 cases are less conclusive diagnosis without considering the data from the previous report.
Of the confirmed cases, 233 had laboratory tests proving that were caused by Zika virus. However, for the Ministry of Health, this number does not reflect reality. For the binder, most confirmed cases caused by Zika, but difficulties of diagnosing the disease, the situation has not been proven in the laboratory.
The new bulletin dismissed 3,416 cases that were considered suspicious because the tests revealed no abnormality, because the defects were confirmed by non-infectious causes or did not meet the case definition. Between the previous and the report released today, 108 cases were disposed of.
In total, there were record suspected microcephaly in 8,039 babies, of which 1,616 were confirmed, 3,416, and 3,007 disposed still under investigation. All states and the Federal District have confirmed cases, most (1,410) registered in the Northeast. The Southeast Region has 98 confirmations, five more than last week.
Zika
Transmitted by the mosquito Aedes aegypti, the Zika virus began circulating in Brazil between 2013 and 2014, but the first records were made by the Ministry of Health in May 2015. What was known about the disease, until the second half of last year, was that its evolution used to be benign and the symptoms usually red spots on the body, fatigue, joint pain and conjunctivitis, and low-grade fever, were lighter than those of dengue and chikungunya fever, also transmitted by the Aedes aegipty.
However, in October 2015, researchers identified the presence of the virus in the amniotic fluid of a child with microcephaly. On November 28, the Ministry of Health confirmed that when pregnant women are infected with the virus, can cause children with microcephaly, an irreversible malformation of the brain that can come associated with mental, visual and hearing damage. Researchers confirmed that the Guillain-Barré syndrome can also be caused by Zika.
Microcephaly can be caused by various infectious agents, in addition to Zika, such as syphilis, toxoplasmosis, rubella, cytomegalovirus and herpes virus.
Source: Agency Brazil
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This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.