Brazilian researchers said on Tuesday that the discovery of Zika in the brains of babies with microcephaly adds to growing evidence of a link between the mosquito-transmitted virus and the birth defec
Brazilian researchers said on Tuesday that the discovery of Zika in the brains of babies with microcephaly adds to growing evidence of a link between the mosquito-transmitted virus and the birth defect.
“We have detected its presence in the brain tissue,” Lucia Noronha, a pathologist from the Brazilian Society of Pathology, said. “The Zika virus caused brain damage and that reinforces evidence of a relationship between Zika and microcephaly,” she said.
Earlier, Dr Noronha’s team at the PUC-Parana University was the first to discover Zika in the amniotic fluid of pregnant women — raising alarm over a link between the virus and microcephalic babies, who are born with damaged brains and abnormally small heads.
“We received samples of brain tissue from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. They’re the same samples that were sent to the US, where researchers at the centres for disease control came to the same conclusion: that there is Zika in the foetus’ brain,” she said.
It may be necessary to use controversial methods like genetically modified mosquitoes to wipe out the insects that are now spreading Zika across the Americas, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.
The virus has been linked to a spike in babies born with abnormally small heads, or microcephaly, in Brazil and French Polynesia. WHO has declared Zika a global emergency even though there is no definitive proof it is causing the birth defects.
In a statement, WHO said its advisory group has recommended further field trials of genetically modified mosquitoes, following trials in the Cayman Islands to fight dengue, where sterile male mosquitoes were released to mate with wild females.
