Cuban officials reported the first case of Zika on Wednesday. The Ministry of Health confirmed that a 28-year-old woman, who arrived on the island on Feb. 21 from Venezuela, tested positive for the virus after a second test on Feb. 28. The woman is still hospitalized in Havana but is in good health, the officials stated.
The Ministry's statement added that the woman's husband had contracted Zika two months ago in their home country while her brother-in-law had the virus two weeks before she left to Cuba to attend a post-graduate class with nearly 40 other students.
The woman, a doctoral student in gastroenterology, had exhibited symptoms of an infection, which included a fever and rash one day after her arrival. She was initially placed under medical quarantine in the Artemisa province, which is right outside of the capital city of Havana.
Although Cuba has yet to see a case of locally transmitted Zika, President Raul Castro announced a plan to increase their efforts in killing populations of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the species of mosquitoes that carry Zika and other viruses, such as dengue and chikungunya. Before the Zika outbreak, the country was already fumigating homes for years to reduce the number of dengue fever cases.
Castro stated that 9,000 soldiers would be responsible for spraying mosquito hotspots throughout the nation. A door-to-door initiative has already begun.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Zika a public health emergency on Feb. 1 after health officials suggested that an infection could lead to a birth defect called microcephaly. In Brazil where the virus has been widespread, the number of microcephaly cases has skyrocketed.
In addition to Zika's link to microcephaly, another study that examined a previous Zika outbreak in Tahiti found evidence that an infection could be linked to Guillain-Barré syndrome. Due to the potential health risks involved, researchers have been working hard to create a vaccine and better diagnostic tests.
