Zika-infected mother in Spain has baby with microcephaly, in first such European case
A woman infected with the Zika virus gave birth in Spain on Monday to a baby with the brain-damaging disorder microcephaly, her hospital said, the first case of its kind in Europe.
The mother, who has not been identified, caught the virus on a trip abroad but authorities have declined to say where. A hospital source said she was infected in Latin America, where the virus is prevalent.
“The baby did not require any resuscitation,” Felix Castillo, neonatal chief at the Vall d’Hebron hospital in Barcelona, told a press conference, adding that the infant’s vital signs were “normal and stable”.
The baby’s sex has not been revealed for privacy reasons.
The newborn’s health is being constantly “monitored” and initial tests confirm that “its head circumference is smaller than normal and that it has microcephaly”, Castillo added.
