Virus That Shrinks Babies' Skulls Is Rapidly Spreading Through The Americas

Photo: JAMES GATHANY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Zika virus, belonging to the Flaviviridae family, it is nowhere near as well-known as many other familial viruses, including those that cause yellow, dengue, and West Nile fevers. However, the Zika virus is certain to make headlines this week: it is beginning to spread rapidly across South America, according to The Independent. The virus is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which among other things causes babies to be born with abnormally small brains.

It was first isolated in a rhesus monkey in 1947 in the Zika Forest of Uganda, and was isolated for the first time from humans in 1968 in Nigeria. Symptoms associated with a Zika virus infection includes headaches, a body rash, fever, and joint pain. Mothers infected with the virus can give birth to babies that suffer from incurable microcephalic – those with dramatically shrunken craniums. 

The global spread of the disease outside of Uganda has been continuing for some time, but the virus has recently experienced a surge in successful infections, particularly in South America. In terms of babies born with associated microcephaly, there were only 147 new cases documented in Brazil last year, there were 2,782 cases, 40 of which are dead. All surviving babies are likely to suffer from impaired intellectual development in adulthood, and will require lifelong care.

 Researchers speculate that the disease may have arrived with World Cup travelers last year. Brazilian researchers are concerned that Zika is infecting those with no experience of it, and therefore no immune system response to it. In addition, the warm, humid environments of Brazil may be helping the transmitting mosquito to flourish.

As with any outbreak, fear and confusion is spreading along with the virus itself. Although the Brazilian government isn’t quite telling women not to get pregnant – the evidence connecting the virus to microcephaly is not completely clear just yet – some scientists are advising women to delay pregnancy if they can until the outbreak can be stemmed. The Ministry of Health of Brazil has declared a national public health emergency, giving authorities and medical agencies greater flexibility to the investigations.

“The situation is incredibly frightening,” said Andreza Mireli Silva to The New York Times. She is a 22-year-old worker in a shoe factory in Sergipe State in northeast Brazil who is seven months pregnant, and as such she is considered in the highest risk group. She is applying insect repellant every three hours and is wearing long pants despite the searing summer heat, all to avoid any mosquito bites.

The outbreak hasn’t just spread within Brazil: Puerto Rico is the most recent country to detect the Zika virus, according to CNN.

Since October of last year, the infection has been diagnosed in Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Panama, Suriname and Venezuela. Nevertheless, Brazil, for now, appears to be bearing the brunt of the associated microcephaly outbreaks, most of which are occurring in the northeastern state of Pernambuco. 

There is no vaccine or preventive drug for Zika virus, and only treatment of symptoms is possible. Usually non-steroid anti-inflammatories and/or non-salicylic analgetics are used.