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 Cuba's four previous cases of Zika all involved people who had
contracted the virus while abroad.
Cuba reported its first case of Zika on March 2, making it one of
the last countries in the Americas to encounter the virus. All four
of the previous cases occurred in people who contracted Zika in
Venezuela.
The Cuban woman first reported symptoms on March 7 and was
hospitalized two days later, the Health Ministry said in a statement
read on state television. The woman was diagnosed on Monday and
remains in the hospital, without symptoms, the statement said.
Zika, which is carried by mosquitoes that transmit the virus to
humans, has been linked to thousands of birth defects in Brazil that
is spreading through Latin America and the Caribbean.
The World Health Organization declared the Zika outbreak an
international health emergency on Feb. 1, citing a "strongly
suspected" relationship between Zika infection in pregnancy and
microcephaly, a birth defect marked by abnormally small head size
that can result in developmental problems.
However, much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the
virus actually causes microcephaly in babies.
Brazil said it has confirmed more than 740 cases of microcephaly,
and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the
mothers. Brazil is investigating more than 4,200 additional
suspected cases of microcephaly.
More than a dozen cases of sexual transmission in the United States
and France, and one case of suspected transmission through a blood
transfusion in Brazil, raise questions about other ways that Zika
may spread.
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There is no vaccine or treatment.
The Cuban government, which has fumigated neighborhoods and homes
for decades to contain dengue, another mosquito-borne illness, put
doctors on alert for the virus weeks ago and ramped up mosquito
eradication efforts in neighborhoods in expectation of Zika's
inevitable arrival.
President Raul Castro on Feb. 22 ordered 9,000 active-duty officers
and reserves plus 200 police officers to join the prevention effort
and asked all Cubans to clean up potential environments for the
Aedes genus of mosquitoes.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Sandra Maler and Leslie
Adler)
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