Since October of last year, 4,783
cases of babies born with microcephaly have been reported by national hospitals
in Brazil. Hospital numbers reporting cases of babies with microcephaly have
increased ever since the Zika epidemic became known. In fact, before anyone had
even heard about the virus, only 150 cases of babies with microcephaly were
reported annually. Due to the impacting increase, Brazil’s government is now
considering the guidelines they gave doctors, hospitals and health officials to
report these type of cases. They intend to reduce the amount of false alarms
and misdiagnosed cases. At this time, many cases remain under investigation to
further deduce how many microcephaly cases were not really microcephaly
victims.
Out of all of the reported cases
and the ones that have been examined, only 404 have been official microcephaly
suffering babies. However, of these only 17 of the tested positive for the Zika
virus. In fact, 709 babies have been determined to not have microcephaly at all
misguiding the epidemic numbers and increasing the alarm of society. Though the
Zika virus is a very serious virus that can affect many newborn babies, it is
important to make sure that health care officials or hospitals are really
certain that a child has microcephaly before it is reported as another case.
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