U.S. officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and health officials in Puerto Rico are at odds over Zika cases not being reported accurately, according to a document obtained by STAT.
A surveillance system in Puerto Rico, the Zika Active Pregnancy Surveillance System or ZAPSS, has been set up to keep track of pregnant women and to identify babies and fetuses that have birth defects related to infection by the bug-borne Zika virus.
U.S. officials believe that Zika cases are not being accurately reported accurately, according to the document obtained by STAT.
Dr. Miguel Valencia, the Puerto Rican official who led the ZAPSS project, insisted on a written apology from a CDC official who called into question the Puerto Rican health officials' work.
"I will not be available to participate in any meeting with CDC ZAPSS staff until I receive a written apology from CDC," Valencia wrote in an email to CDC scientist Dr. Carrie Shapiro-Mendoza, according to STAT.
The document pointed out a "large discrepancy" between cases the surveillance system identified and cases reported by the Puerto Rico Department of Health.
"Dr. Valencia reviews ultrasounds and directs data entry staff to enter information he has highlighted as important. It is unclear if his directions are consistent with mutually agreed up on abstraction guidance and if all critical information is being entered in ZAPSS," according to the document.
The Zika virus is believed to be in wide circulation in Puerto Rico. "They're kind of denial about what the problem is," a former U.S. official told STAT in an April 18 report.
"Puerto Rico's not escaping this. They're just hiding… and six months, a year, two years from now there will be all these babies that aren't learning and all these problems that will come to light," the former official added, STAT notes.
States that were hit hard in the 2016 Zika outbreak are ramping up efforts to prevent its spread this year, Fox News reports.
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