Posted: Saturday, September 24, 2016. 8:56 p.m. CST.
By BBN Staff: According to this weekend’s Amandala, 42 cases of Zika have been confirmed countrywide, with 341 more suspected.
Of these, five women have been diagnosed with zika and 21 pregnant women are suspected to have the virus which can cause microcephaly, and other fetal brain defects.
The Ministry of Health is scheduled to have a press conference on Tuesday next week to provide an update on suspected and confirmed cases of zika in Belize.
The ministry continues to focus its surveillance on pregnant women who can pass on the virus to their child.
According to the newspaper who spoke with Dr. Russel Manzanero, the acting director of the Epidemiology Unit at the Ministry, around 50 percent of the cases have been reported in the Belize District and particularly Caye Caulker and Belize City.
The Cayo District has a quarter of the documented suspected cases, whereas the northern districts have the fewest suspected cases. While there are 21 suspected cases in the North, only 1 has been confirmed.
The Stann Creek and Toledo districts jointly have seen 9 confirmed cases.
In related news, dengue which is also spread by the aedis aegypti and aedis albopictus mosquitos remains more severe according to Dr. Manzanero, with over 3 thousand suspected cases of dengue recorded, thus far, for 2016.
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