Scientists on March 4, 2016 said they had found the first evidence of a biological link between the Zika virus sweeping Latin America and microcephaly, a severe deformation of the brain among newborns.
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AN AMERICAN woman who visited the Philippines in January has tested positive for the Zika virus in the United States, the Philippines government has said.
Tang said the study suggests the virus would be capable of doing the damage seen in microcephaly, a condition defined by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems.
Another study from USA and Brazilian researchers found Zika infection during pregnancy is likely connected to grave outcomes for the babies.
Dr. Guo-li Ming of Johns Hopkins University, another lead study author, said researchers can now explore questions like how Zika infects the cells.
There were fresh signs on Friday of Zika-linked microcephaly cases outside Brazil.
Health Secretary Janet Garin said on Sunday that her department was co-ordinating with the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to get more information about the woman and find out where she stayed during her visit from January 2 to 28.
Researchers have confirmed more than 460 of these cases as microcephaly and identified evidence of Zika infection in 41 of these cases, but have not proven that Zika can cause microcephaly.
Health workers say Zika is not a new virus.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who did not participate in the research, agreed that the study doesn’t prove a link.
-Increases in Guillain-Barré syndrome linked to Zika have been reported in eight countries and territories.
Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the virus actually causes microcephaly.
Meanwhile, the New England Journal of Medicine reported on research conducted on 88 pregnant women in Rio de Janerio, one of the nations suffering most from the Zika virus. The cases of babies born with birth defects have increased rapidly in Brazil, where the outbreak is largest.
To date in Brazil, the country most affected by the epidemic, 583 cases of microcephaly were confirmed in October 2015, four times the historical annual average.
Tang said he is collaborating with other labs to look for substances that will block Zika infection of cells, in hopes of eventually creating a treatment for pregnant women that reduces the risk of passing the infection to their babies. They included calcification of the brain, placental insufficiency with low to no amniotic fluid, fetal growth restriction and central nervous system damage, including potential blindness.
In an unrelated study Friday, researchers found that Zika can infect embryonic cells that help form the brain, and harm them in two ways: killing some outright and damaging the ability of others to divide and grow in number. “It strengthens the case that Zika is a culprit behind microcephaly”, said Joseph Gleeson, an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, who was not involved in the study.
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“The important thing is the data is moving in one direction”.
