{"id":91920,"date":"2016-11-22T13:00:35","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T18:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breaking911.com\/?p=91920"},"modified":"2016-11-22T13:00:35","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T18:00:35","slug":"cdc-zika-babies-can-develop-microcephaly-months-birth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breaking911.com\/cdc-zika-babies-can-develop-microcephaly-months-birth\/","title":{"rendered":"CDC: Zika babies can develop microcephaly months after birth"},"content":{"rendered":"
One of the biggest unknowns about the Zika virus is the extent of damage it causes during pregnancy. Much of the early alarm focused on babies born with abnormally small heads and often underdeveloped brains.<\/p>\n
A study released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides disturbing new data about a small group of Zika-infected babies in Brazil, who were born with normal-sized heads but developed microcephaly five months to a year after birth.<\/p>\n
The report is the first to document a link between infants with laboratory evidence of Zika infection in utero who experienced “poor head growth with microcephaly developing after birth.” Although other researchers have described cases of babies developing microcephaly after birth, they could only presume that those infants had been infected congenitally.<\/p>\n
The new study documents that even without microcephaly, Zika-infected babies can have severe neurological damage and other problems. All the infants examined had brain abnormalities, such as decreased brain volume, structures in the brain that were too large and filled with fluid, and decreased brain tissue with a specific pattern of calcium deposits indicating damage.<\/p>\n
In a few cases, the mothers had ultrasounds during pregnancy that showed the infants’ brain abnormalities. But in other babies, these problems only showed up during CT scans or MRIs conducted after birth.<\/p>\n
Along with the lagging rate of head growth, these infants suffered other significant neurological damage. As a result, some have too much muscle tone, which restricts how their bodies can move. Some have muscle weakness on one side or the other. Some have involuntary muscle contractions that cause tremors. Others have difficulty swallowing, as well as seizures and vision problems.<\/p>\n