(19 Dec 2016) Puerto Rico resident Michelle Flandez had recently given birth to her first son, but doctors in the US territory whisked him away before she could see him.
Perplexed, she demanded him back and then slowly unwrapped the blanket that covered him. She recalled her and her husband just looking at each other.
It was mid-October, and in her arms lay what health officials announced as the first known baby born in the territory with a birth defect linked to the mosquito-borne Zika virus.
Those with microcephaly have abnormally small heads and often suffer impeded brain growth and other problems.
The island, already struggling with a shortage of doctors and funds amid a worsening economic crisis, has more than 35,700 Zika cases, including nearly 3,000 representing pregnant women.
Some 300 people overall have been hospitalised and five have died, including at least two who developed complications from a paralysis condition linked to Zika known as Guillain-Barre.
Since the birth of Inti, named after an Inca sun god, four other babies have been born with birth defects linked to Zika, including microcephaly.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has projected a surge of in cases next year.
A study by the CDC estimates that up to 10,300 pregnant women in Puerto Rico could be infected with Zika and that between 100 to 270 babies could be born with microcephaly.
While Flandez had symptoms of Zika early in her pregnancy, she said she was told that tests showed a false positive.
Sonograms in August and September showed no problems.
Flandez on Friday described the challenges of raising son on an island in economic crisis.
Experts fear that babies like Inti could develop other disabilities as they grow, burdening a health care system already breaking under an exodus of doctors fleeing for the US mainland.
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