Bogota: Colombia announced Saturday that more than 2,000 pregnant women in the South American country have been infected with the Zika virus, which is suspected of causing brain damage in newborns.
The National Health Institute reported that Colombia now has 20,297 cases of Zika infection, including 2,116 in pregnant women.
The latest numbers, reported in the institute’s epidemiological bulletin, would make Colombia the second most affected country in the region, after Brazil.
Although the mosquito-borne virus’s symptoms are relatively mild, it is believed to be linked to a surge in cases of microcephaly, a devastating condition in which a baby is born with an abnormally small head and brain.
Microcephaly is an untreatable disease that can cause permanent damage to the child’s motor and cognitive development.
The World Health Organization warned this week that the virus is “spreading explosively” in the Americas, with three million to four million cases expected this year. ARTICLE
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