Zika: babies exposed to the virus suffer from developmental delay

transmitted by mosquitoes Aedes (like the tiger mosquito), the Zika virus can lead to multiple complications. Unsteadiness, impaired gait, neurological disorders such as Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), and birth defects in babies of infected pregnant women. Fortunately, in reality, the majority of children born to a mother affected by Zika are born without microcephaly (poor growth of the skull). On the other hand, they suffer from slight developmental delays, reveals a new study published Monday, January 6 in the American journal Jama Pediatrics.

In the department of Atlantico, in Colombia, a country very affected by Zika, American researchers followed 77 children exposed to the virus in utero, born in 2016 and 2017 until they were 18 months old. Among them, seven suffered from malformations. If the other 70 (91%) apparently had no problem, they were a few months behind on average on the main stages of development, this is what the researchers realized thanks to a questionnaire of 50 questions, given twice to parents between 4 and 18 months.

Scientists have thus noted delays in motor stages such as turning over, sitting down, crawling, walking and climbing stairs. Babies also suffer from social and cognitive delays like taking turns to throw a ball or playing peekaboo.

“Monitoring the long-term neurological development” of exposed babies

“For most babies, the effect is not very large,” explains AFP Sarah Mulkey, pediatric neurologist at Children’s Hospital in Washington (United States), who carried out this work. “These are delays that we would not necessarily notice, unless we do specific tests, she continues. It is recommended to monitor the long-term neurological development of all newborns exposed” to the Zika virus in utero, conclude the researchers.

A few days ago, scientists in the US announced that they found that a higher dose of vaccine given to a pregnant mouse protected her and her fetus from Zika. A lower dose, on the other hand, was useless. No adverse effects were observed on pregnancy, fetal development and infant behavior. These results suggest that this vaccine could be useful even for people who are not pregnant. This study could change the way we think about treatments for Zika. Indeed, at present, everyone thinks that the virus can neither be prevented (apart from avoiding mosquito bites) nor treated.

It is since 2015, when Zika caused an epidemic in Brazil, that the virus has become a public health issue. The outbreak then spread across South America, Central America and the Caribbean region before becoming a global pandemic. Recently, autochthonous cases were reported for the first time in the South-East of France, in Hyères.