New Jersey Baby Born With Zika-Linked Birth Defects May Be First In Continental U.S.

A Honduran woman infected with the rapidly spreading Zika virus gave birth to a baby with microcephaly, a severe birth defect linked to the virus, in New Jersey on Tuesday, The Record reported . The birth is the first reported case in the continental United States of the Zika-caused condition. 

The baby was born with a low birth weight of less than six pounds, an abnormally small head, and severe intestinal and visual issues, said Dr. Manny Alvarez, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at the Hackensack University Medical Center. Alvarez said the mother appeared to be devastated after the Cesarean section. "You could see the pain in her heart," he said, according to The Record.

The New Jersey mother, who was not identified, reportedly contracted the Zika virus after a mosquito bit her when she visited her home country of Honduras during the early stages of her pregnancy. The Centers for Disease Control reports that there have been 591 cases of Zika diagnosed in the United States, but the only known case of a baby born with microcephaly from the virus occurred in Hawaii earlier this year . The virus is typically spread by a mosquitos, but can also be transmitted through sexual contact.

The CDC has requested $1.9 billion in funding to deal with the Zika epidemic, which is spreading rapidly throughout South and Central America and becoming an urgent threat to the continental U.S. as the weather warms up and becomes more mosquito-friendly. But Congress failed last week to pass a bill  to give health officials the money they need, and then left the Capitol for a 10-day recess. 

CDC Director Tom Frieden begged Congress on Thursday to stop bickering over the financial details and move on Zika before it's too late. 

“Imagine that you’re standing by and you see someone drowning, and you have the ability to stop them from drowning, but you can’t,” Frieden told reporters and potential donors at the National Press Club. “Now multiply that by 1,000 or 100,000. That’s what it feels like to know how to change the course of an epidemic and not be able to do it.”