The Jalisco Health Department (SSJ) will carry out a census of pregnant women in the state and provide follow-up services in the wake of the worldwide Zika virus alert.
The World Health Organization this week declared a “public health emergency of international concern” due to the suspected link of the Zika virus to a surge in serious birth defects in South America.
Mexico’s federal health authority (SSA) has confirmed 34 cases of the Zika virus in the country – one in the state of Jalisco.
The link between the Zika virus and microcephaly – a rare condition in which babies have unusually small heads and brains – has not yet been scientifically proven, according to the WHO. However, since Zika arrived in Brazil in 2015, more than 4,000 cases of microcephaly have been reported — a twentyfold increase from previous years.
Jalisco, along with many other regions of Mexico, is not taking any chances. “Pregnant women will be assessed by our reproductive health area to verify if, at the moment of birth, the (microcephaly) association is present,” SSJ Infectious Diseases Director Juan Salvador Garcia Hernandez said Tuesday.
Like dengue, the Zika virus is spread to people through mosquito bites. The most common symptoms are fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis (red eyes). The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting from several days to a week. Severe disease requiring hospitalization is uncommon. Many people who get the virus are never diagnosed, although it might still potentially damage fetuses, health experts warn.
Mosquitoes may not be the only way to spread Zika. There have been three previous cases recorded to suggest Zika can be sexually transmitted. This week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta told news media that a patient infected in Dallas, Texas is likely to have been infected by sexual contact. Apparently, the person had not travelled to infected areas but their partner had returned from Venezuela.
Due to the reports of pregnant women giving birth to babies with birth defects and poor pregnancy outcomes, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta has issued guidance on how to care for pregnant women during a Zika outbreak, and whether to get tested for the virus (see chart this page). They have also issued notices for people traveling to regions in certain countries where Zika virus transmission is ongoing.
Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Jamaica and Puerto Rico have warned women to delay conceiving until the Zika outbreak is brought under control.
Federal authorities in Mexico issued a Zika health alert on January 21 and intend to start a nationwide awareness campaign, with emphasis on pregnant mothers, this week.
The majority of cases in Mexico have been in Chiapas. The rest are spread out in Nuevo Leon, Oaxaca, Tamaulipas, Queretaro and Jalisco.
Mexican Health Secretary Mercedes Juan Lopez confirmed this week that there has not been a case of a pregnant woman diagnosed with Zika in the country. She also urged European nations not to “overreact” to the health alert. In 2009, several European countries, including the United Kingdom, issued travel bans to Mexico in the wake of a swine flu epidemic that originated here and caused the deaths of hundreds of people. The prevailing common consensus, however, is that restricting international travel is not the answer to contain outbreaks of this kind.