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The Zika mystery & Zika abortions

The Zika mystery & Zika abortions

Last updated on: August 16, 2016 at 5:30 am by Gene Veith

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The Zika mystery & Zika abortions 2016-08-15T21:11:38-04:00 Gene Veith

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Some women who get Zika have babies with severe birth defects, but some don’t. In Brazil, some regions plagued with Zika have a huge percentage of babies with microencephaly. But adjoining regions also plagued with Zika don’t. Also, young, black, and poor women are being hit especially hard.

So researchers are now investigating whether Zika does its damage by being paired with other factors. There had been speculation that the birth defects were caused by a government-administered pesticide. But researchers have confirmed a direct link between the virus and the birth defects. Still, things may not be so simple.

Now that Zika has come to the United States, 15 babies have been diagnosed with microencephaly related to the Zika virus.

Also of concern: Zika, which is spread by mosquitoes or sexual contact, is being used as a pretext for abortion, even late-term abortions, since microencephaly can’t be diagnosed until late in the pregnancy. Read Zika Outbreak Could Reignite Abortion Debate.

From Stephanie Nolen, Brazil opens probe as cases of Zika babies defy predicted patterns – The Globe and Mail:

The bulk of the cases of congenital Zika syndrome – fetal brain defects that sometimes cause microcephaly, or abnormally small skulls – remain clustered in the northeast region of the country where the phenomenon was first identified last October, the ministry says.

And that has epidemiologists and infectious disease experts asking what is going on: Is it Zika and another virus working together that damages the fetal brains? Is it Zika and an environmental factor? Or something about the women themselves whose fetuses are affected? . . .

“We can see there is a kind of cluster in [part of] the northeast region with high prevalence and high severity, of miscarriage and congenital malformation that is really severe,” said Fatima Marinho, co-ordinator of epidemiological analysis and information at the ministry.

“But we didn’t find this in other states – even the [adjacent] states didn’t see the same situation as in the epicentre.… We were preparing for an explosion and it didn’t come.

“So we started to think that in this central area maybe more than Zika is causing this intensity and severity.”

A central theory the ministry is now exploring is whether co-infection with other viruses, such as dengue or chikungunya, is the factor. For example, does a mother’s previous (or simultaneous) infection with dengue, which is also ubiquitous in Brazil, mean that the Zika virus affects a fetus differently? Or is it other viruses? . . .

The ministry is also looking at social determinants, she said, because initial analysis makes it clear the women with affected fetuses have a clear “profile.” Some 77 per cent of them are black or mixed-race (the national figure is 52 per cent), and the great majority are poor. That’s surprising, she said, given that dengue, for example, carried by the same mosquito, infects people across social classes. Most of the mothers are young (between 14 and 24) whereas typically birth defects affect older women. . . .

Because the virus produces no symptoms in up to 80 per cent of people who get it, and only mild symptoms in many others, few people confirm Zika infection with laboratory tests, and so statistics of Zika cases are always estimates. The virus currently infecting Brazilians is a new, Asian strain of Zika, which was identified more than 60 years ago but never associated with congenital problems, or known to be sexually transmissible, as this strain is.

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