Pregnant woman infected by Zika in GT
Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr Samuel Williams-Rodriguez (left) and MRCU Director Dr Bill Petrie
(CNS): A pregnant woman who lives in the Swamp area of George Town has been infected with the Zika virus, public health officials said. The first confirmed case of a pregnant woman contracting the mosquito-transmitted virus was revealed at a public information meeting in the capital Tuesday evening, when Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr Samuel Williams-Rodriguez said that the Public Health Department had received five more positive tests of local transmission over the last week. There have now been 17 lab-confirmed locally-acquired cases of Zika and all of the patients are residents of George Town.
The pregnant patient has had an ultrasound and doctors stated that the results were clear. All pregnant women who are suspected of having contracted Zika are still being given free tests, and doctors said that the concern over microcephaly and other birth defects for expectant mothers relate mostly to the first trimester.
Meanwhile, public health officials also said that there are now nine confirmed cases of overseas transmissions in residents from Bodden Town and West Bay as well as George Town. Local transmissions have so far been confined to George Town, but Dr Rodriguez said the patients came from all across the capital and there was no specific area that could be identified as a hot spot. He said positive cases had been confirmed in residents from Prospect, South Sound, Seven Mile Beach, the Swamp, North Sound Road and Rock Hole.
With a total now of 26 confirmed cases in patients who picked up the virus abroad and locally, Rodriguez warned that the actual numbers will be much greater. Many more people will not know they have had the virus as around 80% of people who are infected are asymptomatic.
Currently, the Public Health Department said that they are still awaiting results for and are investigating several more suspected Zika cases and expect that there will be many more cases to come.
The MRCU is continuing its efforts to keep the numbers of Aedes aegypti down, especially in and around the capital. But Dr Bill Petrie, the unit’s director, urged people to do everything they could to eradicate standing water in and around their homes to eliminate breeding areas of the invasive mosquito, which lives so close to humans and bites in the day.
He also urged pregnant women and anyone who had concerns about mosquito levels around their home to contact the unit and he said staff would come and fog, as the team had caught up on the backlog of requests that had built up in George Town after an unprecedented number in recent weeks.
Some doctors around the world are now warning of a possible global epidemic of microcephaly and a generation of babies with birth defects caused by Zika.
The virus has now spread to 73 countries around the world and Brazil, which has been hard hit by the virus, is set to begin human vaccine trials in the next two months.
Category: Health, Medical Health
This is how easy it is to contract Zika via sweat and tears! Try the gym.. everything is a risk now it seems.. the whole island will have it soon enough. If you pregnant seriously just leave or have a disabled baby on your hands for life. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3812782/Utah-man-contracted-Zika-dying-fathers-tears.html?ITO=1490
What is CI Govt. and HRC doing to allow for legal abortion in Cayman?
One only needs to drive along Harquail Bypass along the Dump fence to see more than enough standing swamp water and junk that no doubt mosquitoes are likely breeding in.
Exactly! Women should have that right! Legalize abortion, marijuana and gay rights.
3 birds, 1 stone.
It is just appalling that you suggest abortion as a solution. That is not the answer. Just leave the island I don’t care where you go if you pregnant. Just not worth the risk. So what if it hurts the family unit for 9 months or is hard financially. Where there is a will there is a way. But it is not abortion. That is disgraceful. Killing is never the answer. Shame on you.
We have a neighbor that refuses to dump their rain gutter water buckets. What can we do to force them stop this???
Report to MRCU to ‘talk’ with them.
If this pregnant woman is in the first trimester I would say go to Miami and get an abortion. She can always get pregnant again. Think of the lifelong hardships of caring for such a child versus the cost of an abortion. Although illegal in Cayman it should be allowed for such cases.
? Are you real?
That’s a very personal decision, but I agree it should be hers to make, not yours to prescribe.
You have to wonder if all those goons didnt try to stop the gmo mosquito release if it could have stopped this poor woman from getting sick.
Too sad that infected cases are rising.
The virus has traveled in most parts of the island based on different areas cited above.
How can MRCU eradicate the virus if the infected mosquitoes are now all over the place?
I think they should ask the help of private organizations or volunteer groups as to how the number of fogging from a truck can be increased aside from the aerial spraying that is being done.
Not only stagnant water from dirt but any swimming pools must be drained if the home owners or strata managers don’t have a habit of regularly maintaining them.
They also need to take a look at the drainage they put under south sound road that’s now blocked by the developer who filled in the seafront, draining the swamp areas around GT can’t hurt the fight.
Since the release of those GM mosquitos, we have had 17 locally confirmed cases and the latest happens to be the dreaded pregnant woman…..Prior to the release, were there any locally transmitted cases? I don’t think so, and it had been in the region for years.
There were confirmed cases prior to the release, but filter out the facts to fit your agenda if it makes you feel better.
Also, we released GM mosquitoes in East End a few years ago so where was the Zika outbreak then?
Lay off the crack pipe
This idiot shows why the universal franchise is over-rated.
Told ya…
The public must take the necessary precautions to ensure the Mosquitos that carry this disease do not have fertile places which contain water in which the females lay their eggs. People get rid of the old cars, containers with water and just junk all over the place. To contain this government need to send inspectors door to door and ensure that there are no junk in yards that aid in the breeding of these Mosquitos. There are lots of derilect vehicles all over the island, begin to apply fines to the owners and property owners and I can assure you we will see a reduction in both (Mosquitos and old cars).
This would work in a country where Government depts. are actually doing their job. You are in Cayman……they can’t keep track of people out on arrest warrants, they have over 800 traffic tickets uncollected and you expect them to go door to door and make checks (which would involve physically moving around) and then impose more fines on which they won’t collect?
Sorry, I know there are some decent civil servants, but when you drive these roads every day and you see overflowing garbage bins in the same spot and government can’t seem to put a stop to this, I have no longer much faith………..
I hope we get a follow up from them after the baby is born. (We get news and then the ball gets dropped, never getting a follow up) I hope all goes well but I’m sure the expectant mother will have a stressful pregnancy.
Take care!
Poor lady she must be distraught. I hope it doesn’t affect her baby. Stay safe people.
My heart goes out to this poor woman an her unborn child. Prayer for a Zika-free baby.
It will become an endemic soon enough. Anyone who is on island that is pregnant should make arrangements to leave for those 9 months no matter what the cost or sacrifice. It is too devastating a result to live with for the next how ever many years with a child /adult that can’t care for themselves. A generation of these poor individuals is not a nice life to have for parents or child all because of a stupid mosquito.
If only it were that ‘simple’. Unfortunately by the time you ‘know’ you’re pregnant you’re in the ‘most likely to have a problem’ stage. The solution is eradication of the mosquitoes. (Or reduction to the point that transfer is unlikely to occur, letting the disease die out locally, though there will be reintroductions. Cayman is blessed to be small and rich enough that this can work as it has in the past.)
Not everyone has the right to live or work in another country. Even for many that do the financial and emotional burden of losing an income and separating the family unit for many months is not always feasible. It should not be the pregnant woman’s responsibility to move to another country but the governments job to keep it under control and report the number of cases accurately. I know someone who had zika weeks ago, lives in west bay, and didn’t travel, the numbers or locations that are being reported are not accurate and that is very concerning. Government does not cover the cost of testing unless you are pregnant and symptomatic, even people who have not traveled and have all symptoms still have to pay out of pocket for the test and many people will simply not get it done as there is no medicine to help and test results are taking upwards of a month to return which means they will be fine and back to work long before they have results. If they are not pregnant why would they bother.
“The pregnant patient has had an ultrasound and doctors stated that the results were clear.”
May I know what results were clear?
Fear porn. Nothing more nothing less. If this was real, the response would be much more. All fake.
What is wrong with you? Get some friends.
I have many friends, most of whom think freely for themselves and are not slaves to every lie that comes from the mainstream media. There is no need to live in fear when you know the truth.
Amen brother @ 4.38pm!
Ah, who doesn’t love a troll.
Wow, not even the chicken pox spread so quickly.