Birth Defect Anencephaly on Rise in Washington, Stumping Health Department

A recent CNN report Saturday revealed an unusually high number of babies born with the birth defect anencephaly in a three-county area in the state of Washington. According to the article, between January 2010 and January 2013, Department of Health epidemiologists found 23 reported cases of anencephaly in those areas, which means for every 10,000 live births there were roughly eight cases. Anencephaly is a life-ending birth defect where parts of the infant's brain and skull are missing. The stunning amount of those cases reported is four times higher than the national average, which is about 2 cases per 10,000 lives.

Source: Latin Post, 4 March 2014
http://www.latinpost.com/articles/8265/20140304/birth-defect-anencephal…

Henk Tennekes

Fri, 01/01/2016 - 15:55

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A little-known virus spread by mosquitoes is causing one of the most alarming health crises to hit Brazil in decades, officials here warn: thousands of cases of brain damage, in which babies are born with unusually small heads. Many pregnant women across Brazil are in a panic. The government, under withering criticism for not acting sooner, is urging them to take every precaution to avoid mosquito bites. One official even suggested that women living in areas where mosquitoes are especially prevalent postpone having children. “If she can wait, then she should,” said Claudio Maierovitch, director of the department of surveillance of communicable diseases at Brazil’s Health Ministry. The alarm stems from a huge surge in babies with microcephaly (my-kroh-SEF-uh-lee), a rare, incurable condition in which their heads are abnormally small. Brazilian officials have registered at least 2,782 cases this year, compared with just 147 in 2014 and 167 the year before. Brazilian researchers say that Zika, an obscure mosquito-borne virus that made its way to the country only recently, is to blame for the sudden increase in brain damage among infants.
Source: The New York Times, December 31, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/31/world/americas/alarm-spreads-in-brazi…

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