Colombia reports first cases of microcephaly linked to Zika virus

(THE NEW YORK TIMES) Colombian health officials said on Thursday that they had discovered two cases ofmicrocephalylinked to the Zika virus, the first to be confirmed in the country since the infection began to spread there late last year.

But officials said that they did not expect thebirth defectsto reach the scale seen in neighboringBrazil, which has had more than 1,000 cases of microcephaly, a disorder that causes infants to be born with unusually small heads.

Fernando Ruiz Gómez,Colombia’s deputy health minister, has estimated that 95 to 300 children might be born with microcephaly and that about 380 patients will contractGuillain-Barré syndrome, an autoimmune condition that has been tied to Zika cases and causesparalysisand, in some cases, death.

The total number of Zika infections is projected to reach 200,000 over the course of the outbreak, Mr. Ruiz said.

Colombia recently said its Zika epidemic had peaked, and the new estimates are far below larger projections the government published earlier in the year estimating that as many as 600,000 people would contract Zika.

On Wednesday, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlantaconfirmedthat Zika was the cause of severe birth defects, including microcephaly.

Colombian health officials said one of the children with microcephaly had been born in the district that includes the capital, Bogotá. The second case appeared in the Norte de Santander department, whose main city, Cúcuta, borders Venezuela and has alarge number of pregnant women who contracted Zika.

Colombia has become a second battleground after Brazil in the fight against Zika in South America. It is also a breeding ground for the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries the virus.

In addition to Zika, the country has also been combating a wave of relatedinfectious diseases, which include dengue,yellow feverand chikungunya.