A woman has given birth at a New Jersey hospital to a child with severe microcephaly brought on by the Zika virus, according to officials at Hackensack University Medical Center.
This is reportedly the third case of a baby born in the United States with deformities related to the Zika virus. One was in Hawaii. The other birth was somewhere in the southern part of the country, Dr. Abjulla Al-Khan reportedly told Fox News.
All three mothers are said to have contracted Zika in other countries.
Microcephaly is a condition where babies are born with abnormally small heads, whose brains are not fully formed, and who usually suffer severe mental disabilities. Other health difficulties develop as the child grows older, such as poor vision, hearing loss and problems with movement.
The New Jersey birth was a little girl born Tuesday afternoon, one month early, weighing less than six pounds. The unidentified 31-year-old mother is said to live in Honduras and contracted the virus there in the early stages of her pregnancy.
She was visiting family in the United States when she gave birth. Her husband is in Honduras with their other child, according to the NorthJersey.com.
The baby "came out crying" and the mother was devastated.
"You could see the pain in her heart," said Dr. Manny Alvarez, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at the hospital, who was present during the delivery.
The mother knew there was a problem. Weeks ago while in Honduras, her mother, a microbiologist, suspected trouble with her daugther's pregnancy. So she sent a sample of her daughter's blood to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta for Zika testing. The results were positive.
Friday, four days before giving birth, the mother went to the emergency room in Hackensack, New Jersey.
At that time she told doctors there, "Something is wrong with my baby's brain." She was right.
"We saw on the ultrasound the baby was highly affected with multiple congenital abnormalities, including severe microcephaly," Alvarez said.
The woman was not admitted to the hospital Friday, but returned Tuesday for a follow-up visit. That's when the doctors recommended taking immediate action.
"Our high-risk team saw the baby was not doing well," Alvarez said.
"We decided the baby needed to be delivered." The child was delivered by caesarean section with the assistance of infectious disease experts and neonatologists.
The mother accepts that her baby will have challenges in life, according to Dr. Alvarez. He added that she wants to talk publicly about her baby because "people have to know Zika can destroy a perfect life.
"I want to make sure people are careful and take precautions," she said.
Zika is primarily contracted through mosquito bites, although there have been a small number of cases that were transmitted through sexual contact.
The CDC says 168 pregnant women in the United States have contracted the Zika virus, and another 142 in U.S. territories, such as Puerto Rico.
The CDC has issued warnings for pregnant women who plan to travel to areas with Zika outbreaks, like in Central and South America. Brazil is one of the hardest-hit areas. It is also the site of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in August.
Health officials worldwide are calling on the Rio games to be postponed or moved to a different location because of the outbreak.
Meanwhile, Francisco Rodriguez, with the Detroit Tigers, is recovering from the Zika virus he contracted while visiting relatives in Venezuela. He commented on the growing number of athletes who are worried about contracting Zika at the Olympics.
"I wouldn't blame them," Rodriguez told ESPN.com about any athletes having second thoughts about competing. "If they have plans to have kids in the future, you've got to think about it. You have to be aware of that as well. You have to do some homework, some research about it."