July 27, 2016.
Her mother was infected with the Zika virus while traveling in Latin America, when she was already pregnant. The characteristic malformation of the virus, microcephaly, had been detected during pregnancy, by ultrasounds, but the baby’s parents did not wish to interrupt it.
Zika virus causes fetal malformations in a third of cases
The Zika virus is transmitted by the Tiger mosquito, which is rife in South America (particularly in French Guiana), but also in the French Antilles, as well as in the south of the United States. The virus impacts the development of the fetus during pregnancy, causing in particular a malformation of the skull, undersized, compressing the brain.
A study published in the leading scientific journal Nature Microbiology evokes the risk of seeing tens of thousands of babies born in the world, in the coming years, with malformations, because of the Zika virus. The virus would cause malformations in one in three unborn children, according to a British study.
Zika: 90 million carriers of the virus
There are more than 90 million individuals carrying the virus in the world, which is a more than significant reservoir of the disease, transmitted from man to man through mosquito bites, or even sexually. To date, no treatment against the disease, nor vaccine against the Zika virus, is available.
