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First Zika-linked birth defects detected in Colombia
Cases may signal start of anticipated wave of birth defects in country hit hard by Zika virus.
Declan Butler
04 March 2016
Researchers have found Colombia's first cases of birth defects linked to the Zika virus, Nature has learned ? which are likely forerunners of a widely anticipated wave of Zika-related birth defects in the country.
The discovery is perhaps no surprise: the virus arrived in Colombia last September, and the country is second only to Brazil in terms of the number of people infected with Zika.
But Colombian researchers hope that plans put in place to closely monitor pregnant women can help to better establish the magnitude of the threat posed to fetuses by Zika. That is a crucial question that scientists have not so far been able to answer with the data from Brazil.
Researchers have diagnosed one newborn with microcephaly ? an abnormally small head ? and two others with congenital brain abnormalities, says Alfonso Rodriguez-Morales, who chairs the Colombian Collaborative Network on Zika (RECOLZIKA), which made the diagnoses. All three tested positive for the presence of Zika virus. The researchers have submitted a report of their detections to a scientific journal.
Rodriguez-Morales, an infectious-diseases epidemiologist at the Technological University of Pereira in western Colombia, says that he expects to see a rise in cases of Zika-linked birth defects starting in two or three months' time. The RECOLZIKA group ? a network of researchers and public-health institutions across Colombia ? are already investigating a handful of other suspected cases of microcephaly, which have a possible link to Zika.
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To be prepared to better interpret any imminent peak in birth defects in Colombia, RECOLZIKA plans to look at historical cases to establish a baseline for the annual numbers of birth defects in different regions. It is also setting up a study to analyse patterns in the distribution of head-circumference measurements recorded in obstetrics units regionally throughout the country, to get a better idea of the local range of normal values.
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Nature doi:10.1038/nature.2016.19502
Cases may signal start of anticipated wave of birth defects in country hit hard by Zika virus.
Declan Butler
04 March 2016
Researchers have found Colombia's first cases of birth defects linked to the Zika virus, Nature has learned ? which are likely forerunners of a widely anticipated wave of Zika-related birth defects in the country.
The discovery is perhaps no surprise: the virus arrived in Colombia last September, and the country is second only to Brazil in terms of the number of people infected with Zika.
But Colombian researchers hope that plans put in place to closely monitor pregnant women can help to better establish the magnitude of the threat posed to fetuses by Zika. That is a crucial question that scientists have not so far been able to answer with the data from Brazil.
Researchers have diagnosed one newborn with microcephaly ? an abnormally small head ? and two others with congenital brain abnormalities, says Alfonso Rodriguez-Morales, who chairs the Colombian Collaborative Network on Zika (RECOLZIKA), which made the diagnoses. All three tested positive for the presence of Zika virus. The researchers have submitted a report of their detections to a scientific journal.
Rodriguez-Morales, an infectious-diseases epidemiologist at the Technological University of Pereira in western Colombia, says that he expects to see a rise in cases of Zika-linked birth defects starting in two or three months' time. The RECOLZIKA group ? a network of researchers and public-health institutions across Colombia ? are already investigating a handful of other suspected cases of microcephaly, which have a possible link to Zika.
...
To be prepared to better interpret any imminent peak in birth defects in Colombia, RECOLZIKA plans to look at historical cases to establish a baseline for the annual numbers of birth defects in different regions. It is also setting up a study to analyse patterns in the distribution of head-circumference measurements recorded in obstetrics units regionally throughout the country, to get a better idea of the local range of normal values.
...
Nature doi:10.1038/nature.2016.19502
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