Zika virus can damage fetal brain late in pregnancy: Study
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 12, 2016 — The Zika virus may harm a baby's brain even if the mother is infected just before giving birth, a new study suggests.
It had been believed that Zika infection posed a threat to a baby's brain only if the mother was infected during the first trimester.
Since the Zika outbreak began in Brazil in April 2015, thousands of babies have been born with the devastating birth defect known as microcephaly, in which the head and brain are abnormally small.
The new study included 55 Brazilian women infected by Zika during pregnancy and their infants. Medical imaging revealed that four infants whose mothers were infected with Zika between two weeks and one week before birth had central nervous system lesions characteristic of viral infections.
“These infants were born with normal length and weight, and without microcephaly or any other symptoms of the disease. The lesions would have gone unnoticed by health workers if the mothers hadn't been part of a st..