Via G1Globo.com, a report from Bom Dia Brasil: Aumenta a lista de complicações da zika que preocupam cientistas. [Growing list of Zika complications worries scientists] Click or tap through for the full report (in Portuguese) and a video clip. Edited excerpt from the Google translation:
The list of Zika complications that worries Brazilian scientists has grown. A number of other diseases are also being associated with the Zika virus.
For the first time in Brazil, UFRJ researchers have decoded the genetic code of Zika virus found in the amniotic fluid that surrounds the baby during pregnancy.
The studies began in November and were made in eight babies born in Campina Grande, Paraiba. Two of them died within 48 hours after delivery.
"Increasingly, for example, the presence of virus in the brain of these children shows that there is a correlation relationship, but correlation cannot be translated into causality, that is, it is not definitive evidence of the cause, the virus causing the disease," says geneticist and director of the Biology Institute of the UFRJ, Rodrigo Brindeiro.
The researchers also found other brain injuries such as severe ventriculomegaly, when the brain is more liquid than it should be, and does not develop. And atrophies such as arthrogryposis, which harden the muscles and joints. And another important discovery: These injuries can occur even if the baby does not have microcephaly.
"Another message from monitoring of the eight children is that the head circumference at birth be deceptive. The child may be born with normal head size, and have drastic intracerebral changes," says virologist and researcher at UFRJ Amilcar Tanuri.
The report goes on to say that such cases are now being called "congenital Zika virus syndrome." Brindeiro speculates that they may be affected by the time of exposure, or the stage of the mother's pregnancy, or by the intensity of the mother's immune response to the virus. The researchers think the transmission rate of the virus to the fetus is no more than 5%; "but when it does happen, the consequences are devastating."
