Baby Born At New Jersey Hospital With Zika-Related Birth Defect
HACKENSACK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- A woman visiting the United States gave birth to a baby at Hackensack University Medical Center Tuesday that has a Zika-related birth defect.
Sheri Hensley, the hospital's senior media specialist, told CBS2 the baby was born with microephaly as a result of the mother contracting the Zika virus internationally.
"HackensackUMC can confirm a baby was born at the Donna A. Sanzari Women's Hospital today with microcephaly , as a result of the mother contracting the Zika virus internationally," Hensley said in a statement.
Hensley did not say where the woman is from but NorthJersey.com reported the woman is from Honduras, a Central American country dealing with the Zika epidemic.
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"She contracted Zika several months ago," Dr. Manny Alvarez, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Hackensack, told NorthJersey.com. "The doctors in Honduras were monitoring her, but they were not sure what they were looking for. This Friday she came to our high-risk unit. We saw on the ultrasound the baby was highly affected with multiple congenital abnormalities, including severe microcephaly."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, microcephaly is a "birth defect where a baby's head is smaller than expected when compared to babies of the same sex and age. Babies with microcephaly often have smaller brains that might not have developed properly."
WCBS 880's Alex Silverman reported the woman's blood was shipped to the CDC for testing.
There have been 591 travel-associated Zika cases reported in the U.S., according to the CDC.
There are 14 confirmed Zika cases in New Jersey now and 127 in New York. All were contracted in other countries.
