AMERICA/CUBA - Zika virus continues to spread, 30 countries in Latin America already affected

Thursday, 3 March 2016 healthcare  

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Havana (Agenzia Fides) –Hygiene and Epidemiology Department officials, who asked not to be named, confirmed that on February 28 Cuban health authorities spoke of 21 cases of Zika virus on the island of Cuba. The government continues to deny the presence of the illness on Cuban soil . The first case reported yesterday 2 march, concerns a Venezuelan student of medicine, said to have contracted the virus in Venezuela. The information supplied by the epidemiologists concurs with news made known last week by army reserves expressly mobilised for healthcare intervention. A press statement said that according to three veterans training to combat the diffusion of the virus-carrier mosquito, during their training a high ranking officer of the Armed Revolutionary Forces, spoke of 20 existing cases. However until yesterday no cases of Zika virus had been reported by the health ministry. The government wants to prevent panic among the people about the virus which is also a threat to tourism one of the island’s main sources of income. The zika virus has already been reported in at least 30 Latin American countries. Cases of microcephaly in new born babies would appear to be connected with the virus, including 8 new cases in Costa Rica, all registered in Nicoya. (AP) (3/3/2016 Agenzia Fides)


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