THE Provincial Health Office (PHO) reported Tuesday the first suspected case of Zika in Negros Occidental.
Dr. Ernell Tumimbang, provincial health officer, said the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) has yet to forward the results of the confirmatory test.
“We’re entertaining one suspected case of Zika in Murcia, but we’re still waiting for the confirmation from the RITM,” he said.
He added that results are delayed considering that RITM is “flooded” with requests for confirmatory tests.
Tumimbang said the woman believed to have contracted the virus recently gave birth to a baby with microcephaly, a rare condition where the infant has a small head, at Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City.
The surveillance system is “closely watching microcephaly births to determine if there is Zika infection,” Tumimbang said.
He added that microcephaly is “attached right away to Zika,” and that the woman “may not be infected now, but she may be infected before.”
As a routine protocol, the patient underwent blood test and the sample was forwarded to the RITM.
Tumimbang said the cause of microcephaly is either Zika virus or folic acid deficiency.
“If it is not Zika, then it might be congenital birth defects, secondary to frolic acid deficiency,” he said.
However, Tumimbang pointed out that the woman was not “symptomatic,” or that the carrier of Zika will not show severe signs and symptoms, but it would have side effects on the child of a pregnant mother who is believed to be carrying the virus.
Tumimbang said that PHO continues to conduct interventions, including emergency fogging and larvicide treatment, as Zika is usually acquired through bites from infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the same type that carries dengue and chikungunya.
Signs and symptoms of Zika usually begin three to seven days after the person is bitten by an infected mosquito.
Common symptoms include fever, skin rash, joint pains, and conjunctivitis.
The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting two to seven days.
The Department of Health reported 12 cases in the country this year.
Of the number, 10 cases are from Western Visayas – nine from Iloilo City and one from Oton, Iloilo.
DOH reiterates its appeal to local government units to find ways and be very vigorous so that households are able to search and destroy mosquito breeding sites, commonly seen inside and around homes.
r