Zika virus can cause brain tissue loss and stillbirths. This is the conclusion reached by researchers from Yale University.
American scientists have discovered that the Zika virus can cause much more serious injury to newborns than previously thought. They studied a stillborn baby whose Brazilian mother was infected with the virus. An autopsy revealed that the baby had no brain.
This disorder is called hydroanencephalus, when the brain cavity is filled with fluid instead of brain tissue. The child also had abnormal accumulations of fluid in other parts of the body.
For the first time, scientists have linked the Zika virus to damage to fetal tissue outside the central nervous system. Until recently, birth defects associated with a rapidly spreading virus were almost always associated with microcephaly, a disorder in which a child is born with an abnormally small skull size.
The virus is carried by mosquitoes of the genus Aedes. Researchers also suspect that the virus is sexually transmitted. A vaccine for the virus has not yet been developed. The means of prevention is the destruction of mosquitoes that transmit the disease.
It is too early to draw far-reaching conclusions, since the research data was based on only one case, however, even this gives rise to serious concern. There is no vaccine or treatment available for the Zika virus, which causes mild fever, rashes, and eye redness.
80% of the victims of this virus show no symptoms at all, so pregnant women have no idea that they are infected.
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Researchers now speculate that the virus may be associated with a risk of stillbirth. And although a causal relationship has not been proven, the available material still raises concerns.
