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New Zika Threat to Babies: Late-Onset Microcephaly
By Brenda Goodman, MA
WebMD Health News Reviewed by Hansa D. Bhargava, MD
Aug. 8, 2016 -- CDC researchers have made a startling discovery about microcephaly, a devastating birth defect caused by the Zika virus: It can affect babies late into a mother?s pregnancy and not become apparent until months after they are born.
Up to now, researchers have said babies were most susceptible to the virus when a woman was infected early in a pregnancy. Babies who have the devastating condition generally have abnormally small heads at birth.
But in the newly described form of microcephaly -- dubbed late-onset microcephaly -- babies appear to have normally sized heads at birth, but their damaged brains have stopped growing. By about 6 months of age, they have developed microcephaly because their head size hasn't kept up with normal growth, said William Dobyns, MD, professor of pediatrics and neurology at Seattle Children's Hospital. Dobyns has been studying brain injuries in Zika-infected babies.
The condition was observed by CDC researchers who are following more than 1,200 Zika-affected pregnancies in Brazil, said Ted Pestorius, an assistant incident manager for the CDC's Zika response. The finding has not been published in a medical journal.
...
http://www.webmd.com/news/20160811/new-zika-threat-late-onset-microcephaly
By Brenda Goodman, MA
WebMD Health News Reviewed by Hansa D. Bhargava, MD
Aug. 8, 2016 -- CDC researchers have made a startling discovery about microcephaly, a devastating birth defect caused by the Zika virus: It can affect babies late into a mother?s pregnancy and not become apparent until months after they are born.
Up to now, researchers have said babies were most susceptible to the virus when a woman was infected early in a pregnancy. Babies who have the devastating condition generally have abnormally small heads at birth.
But in the newly described form of microcephaly -- dubbed late-onset microcephaly -- babies appear to have normally sized heads at birth, but their damaged brains have stopped growing. By about 6 months of age, they have developed microcephaly because their head size hasn't kept up with normal growth, said William Dobyns, MD, professor of pediatrics and neurology at Seattle Children's Hospital. Dobyns has been studying brain injuries in Zika-infected babies.
The condition was observed by CDC researchers who are following more than 1,200 Zika-affected pregnancies in Brazil, said Ted Pestorius, an assistant incident manager for the CDC's Zika response. The finding has not been published in a medical journal.
...
http://www.webmd.com/news/20160811/new-zika-threat-late-onset-microcephaly