Puerto Rico has reported just 16 cases of births affected by the Zika virus, Stat reports — and that has U.S. officials suspicious. The virus, which swept across the Americas and other tropical regions last year, is known to cause congenital defects in babies if the mother contracts it while pregnant.
Stat notes that more than 3,300 pregnant women in Puerto Rico are known to have contracted the mosquito-borne illness, making the mere 16 reported cases of Zika-affected births all the more unlikely. A former U.S. health official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, speculated to Stat that the territorial government is obfuscating the severity of Zika to save its tourism industry, which is a huge source of revenue for the cash-strapped island.
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