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 The case, a four-month old baby whose mother was diagnosed with Zika
when she was pregnant, was found in the central province of Dak Lak.
"This is a microcephaly case with a high probability of being
related to the Zika virus and also the first such case in Vietnam,"
the General Department of Preventive Medicine, a department of the
nation's health ministry, said in a statement posted on its official
website.
Vietnam so far has reported a total nine cases of Zika infection,
with more cases expected to be confirmed in the next few days, the
department's director Tran Dac Phu told Reuters on Sunday.
If the microcephaly case is confirmed to be linked to Zika, Vietnam
would become the second Southeast Asian country after Thailand to
report such a case.
Vietnam earlier this month raised the threat level for Zika and
stepped up monitoring of pregnant women in the country after
detecting more cases and amid growing outbreaks in the region.
Zika infections in pregnant women have been shown to cause
microcephaly - a severe birth defect in which the head and brain are
undersized - as well as other brain abnormalities.
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The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light in
Brazil, which has confirmed more than 1,800 cases of microcephaly.
In adults, Zika infections have also been linked to a rare
neurological syndrome known as Guillain-Barre, as well as other
neurological disorders.
(Reporting by My Pham; Editing by Sam Holmes)
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