(CMC) Grenada has recorded its first case of microcephaly after the unidentified mother of the baby became infected with the mosquito-borne Zika virus during her pregnancy.
Health Minister Nicholas Steele said that the child, whose gender was not disclosed, was born in the last quarter of 2016 but the information was not disclosed to the public until Tuesday after he was quizzed by journalists.
“We did not want to raise an alarm because we saw that as private,” Steele said refusing to disclose the location of the child.
Microcephaly is a birth defect where a baby’s head is smaller than expected when compared to babies of the same sex and age.
Steele said that zika infection has been stabilised here and that no new cases of the disease had been recorded in recent time.
At the height of the Zika outbreak 11 people were diagnosed with the Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS), a disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system. The first symptoms of this disorder include varying degrees of weakness or tingling sensations in the legs. Two of the people who contracted GBS have since died.
