{"id":210872,"date":"2016-05-02T10:35:01","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T10:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=210872"},"modified":"2016-05-02T10:35:01","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T10:35:01","slug":"scientists-raise-fear-higher-zika-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/05\/scientists-raise-fear-higher-zika-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists raise fear of higher Zika risk"},"content":{"rendered":"
The mosquito-borne Zika virus may be even more dangerous than previously thought, scientists in Brazil say.<\/p>\n
They told the BBC that Zika could be behind more damaging neurological conditions, affecting the babies of up to a fifth of infected pregnant women.<\/p>\n
Rates of increase in Zika infection in some parts of Brazil have slowed, thanks to better information about preventing the disease.<\/p>\n
But the search for a vaccine is still in the early stages.<\/p>\n
And Zika continues to spread across the region.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Most doctors and medical researchers now agree that there is a link between the Zika virus and microcephaly, where babies are born with abnormally small heads because of restricted brain development.<\/p>\n
While it is estimated that 1% of women who have had Zika during pregnancy will have a child with microcephaly, leading doctors in Brazil have told the BBC that as many as 20% of Zika-affected pregnancies will result in a range of other forms of brain damage to the baby in the womb.<\/p>\n
A separate study, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, said that “29% of scans showed abnormalities in babies in the womb, including growth restrictions, in women infected with Zika”.<\/p>\n