A PREGNANT woman aged 16 and infected by the Zika virus gave birth to a healthy and normal child before Christmas, Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial announced on Wednesday.
“We have one who delivered [her baby already], the one in Las Piñas, and the baby is healthy and normal,” Ubial said.
She said of the 52 Zika cases, only four or seven percent were women who had been pregnant at the time of infection.
She said her department was monitoring the mother and her baby despite her having been declared safe from the lingering effects of the mosquito-borne virus.
“Our patients are still under close surveillance and monitoring because, as we all know, this is a very new phenomenon in our health system,” Ubial said.
The Zika virus disease is known to cause birth defects such as microcephaly and other brain deformities in newborn children.
Ubial said that as of Dec. 28 her department had recorded 52 confirmed Zika cases nationwide. The ages of those infected ranged from seven to 59 years old and 65 percent were female.
The 59 cases compare with the 33 cases announced by the department on Nov. 15.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said about six percent of the babies in the United States born to mothers with the Zika virus had birth defects.