Malaysia today Wednesday 7th of September confirmed its first case of the Zika virus in a pregnant woman, a 27-year-old living in a southern city next to the city-state of Singapore.
Zika
infections in pregnant women have been shown to cause microcephaly, a
severe birth defect in which the head and brain are undersized, besides
other brain abnormalities.
Health Minister
Subramaniam Sathasivam said the woman, who is three- to four-months
pregnant, lives in the southern city of Johor Bahru, next to Singapore
which has reported a total of 275 cases so far.
Her husband, who works in Singapore, had also showed symptoms of Zika and was undergoing tests.
"It's still unclear whether the woman contracted the disease from her husband or whether it was locally transmitted," Subramaniam told a press conference in Putrajaya, Malaysia's administrative capital.
Last
week, Malaysia confirmed the first imported case of Zika in a
58-year-old woman who had visited Singapore. On Saturday, it confirmed
the first case of a locally transmitted Zika infection.
Subramaniam
said Malaysia was expecting to see more cases in Johor Bahru because of
its closeness to Singapore. About 200,000 Malaysians commute daily from
Johor to the city-state.
Although microcephaly is
typically detected during ultrasounds in the late second and early
third trimester of pregnancy, these findings can be detected as early as
18-20 weeks gestation, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
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