A String of Bad News About Zika

A String of Bad News About Zika

The finding that the Zika virus could spread through more than 1 form of sexual activity added to a string of bad news about the public health threat. This threat has swept throughout most of Latin America and appears poised to spread throughout much of the United States as warmer weather marks the arrival of mosquito season.

On April 10, Brazilian scientists said they had discovered a new neurologic disorder associated with Zika infections in adults,^[2] an autoimmune syndrome called acute disseminated encephalomyelitis. Resembling multiple sclerosis and found mostly in children, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis attacks nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord. The scientists also reported more evidence that the virus can trigger Guillain-Barré syndrome, a previously known risk.

Three days later, the CDC announced that it finally had confirmed what the agency had suspected all along: the Zika virus causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads and damaged brains, a condition known as microcephaly.^[3] Brazil has reported thousands of suspected cases and more than 1000 confirmed cases since 2015.

CDC researchers arrived at a definite causal relationship between the virus and microcephaly in a study published April 13 in the New England Journal of Medicine.^[3]

"This is a study that marks a turning point in the Zika outbreak," CDC director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, said in a news conference that day. "Never before in history [has] there been a situation where a bite from a mosquito could result in a devastating malformation."

It is perhaps not surprising to note that another CDC official said earlier this week that the Zika virus is "scarier than we initially thought."