THE first suspected case of Zika in Negros Occidental turned out negative.
This was confirmed Wednesday by Dr. Glen Alonsabe, chief of Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit of the Department of Health (DOH) in Western Visayas.
He said they received a negative result on the confirmatory test of the woman’s blood sample conducted by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
The woman from Murcia was believed to have contracted the virus after she gave birth to a baby with microcephaly, a rare condition where a baby has a small head. She was confined at Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City.
Alonsabe said that Zika didn’t cause microcephaly on the baby.
“We don’t know (yet), it could be infection or genetic,” he said.
DOH reported 15 cases in the country this year, with majority of the cases coming from Iloilo City.
Zika is transmitted through mosquito bites. Its symptoms include fever, skin rash, joint pains, and conjunctivitis.
Dr. Ernell Tumimbang, provincial health officer of Negros Occidental, said the surveillance system is still closely monitoring microcephaly births in the province.
He said the Provincial Health Office continues to conduct interventions, like emergency fogging and larvicide treatment, since Zika is acquired from the same type of mosquitoes that also spread dengue and chikungunya.