NATIONAL health authorities have confirmed a second case of a pregnant woman suffering from the Zika virus whose foetus is affected by brain deformity.
Following the case reported in Catalunya on May 5 this year – where a woman had caught the virus after a trip to Latin America, but decided to go ahead with the pregnancy despite hearing the foetus was badly affected – another has been announced today (Monday), although the location in Spain has not been revealed.
The patient was told her foetus showed clear signs of 'congenital anomalies' consistent with microencephalia, or a brain which is too small and underdeveloped, caused by 'an infectious condition'.
In this case, the woman was living in Latin America, although the country in question has not been confirmed, and later travelled to Spain to live.
She noticed symptoms of the disease, which is transmitted by the tropical Aedes Aegypti mosquito – not currently present in Spain – during the first three months of her pregnancy, and the diagnosis of the foetal deformation was given some weeks later.
The patient has reportedly requested an abortion.
Health authorities stress the virus cannot be passed through person-to-person contact, and is not contagious either, meaning there is no risk to other pregnant women who have not been to a high-risk country.
However, some cases worldwide have been sexually-transmitted or caught via contact with blood from an infected person.
Anyone who is not pregnant and who catches the virus will normally only suffer 'flu-like symptoms, and will recover without medication within approximately a week.
So far, 141 cases of Zika – all imported – have been recorded in Spain, of which 19 affect pregant women, but at present 17 of these mothers-to-be are thought to be carrying a healthy foetus.
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