Government maps assistance to children with microcephaly in Brazil

With more than 4,000 reported microcephaly cases under investigation, the Ministry of Health began to map the conditions in which babies born with malformation receive health care in Brazil. The information is being collected through telephone conversations with the children's families, aiming to identify the tests to which the babies have undergone and to know how the babies are being monitored by the Primary and Specialized Health Care in Brazil's public health system.

According to the Health Ministry, the families of babies reporting microcephaly will be contacted, even those who are still under investigation. The ministry's purpose is to identify the health care stage of each child and to offer support for organizing service flows in states and municipalities, based on the reports.

Oswaldo Cruz Foundation has trained 180 listeners to make contact with family members. Telephone calls began February 22, and the action is expected to be completed by the end of March.

Since November last year, the Ministry of Health found that the Zika virus caused an unexpected increase in the number of microcephaly cases reported in the country. While 147 cases of children born with malformation were recorded in 2014, 583 cases have been confirmed from October 2015 to February 2016, and 67 of them were proven to have been caused by zika.

Other 4,107 suspected microcephaly cases are under investigation. Since the beginning of the investigation, on October 22, 2015 until February 20, 5,640 cases have been reported, and 950 have been already dismissed.

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta