Rio de Janeiro, July 21 (IANS): Brazil has confirmed 1,709 cases of microcephaly among newborns linked to the Zika virus, said the Health Ministry.
According to a report, Zika has claimed 102 lives in the past nine months while 3,182 cases of microcephaly were still under investigation, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Zika virus, transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, has milder symptoms than dengue or chikungunya fever but when pregnant women are infected with Zika, they can give birth to babies with microcephaly, a defect marked by unusually small and underdeveloped brains.
Zika is raging across Latin America, with Brazil having registered the largest number of microcephaly cases.