Zika could cause brain and spinal cord infections: Report

Fuelling that suspicion are recent discoveries of serious brain and spinal cord infections - including encephalitis, meningitis and myelitis - in people exposed to Zika. Evidence that Zika’s damage may be more varied and widespread than initially believed adds pressure on affected countries to control mosquitoes and prepare to provide intensive care to more patients. The newly suspected disorders can cause paralysis and permanent disability - a clinical outlook that adds urgency to vaccine development efforts.

Scientists are of two minds about why these new maladies have come into view. The first is that, as the virus is spreading through such large populations, it is revealing aspects of Zika that went unnoticed in earlier outbreaks in remote and sparsely populated areas. The second is that the newly detected disorders are more evidence that the virus has evolved. 

“What we’re seeing are the consequences of this virus turning from the African strain to a pandemic strain,” said Dr Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. The suspicion that Zika acts directly on nerve cells began with autopsies on aborted and stillborn foetuses showing the virus replicating in brain tissues. In addition to microcephaly, researchers reported finding other abnormalities, including foetal deaths, placental insufficiency, foetal growth retardation and injury to the central nervous system. 

Doctors also are worried that Zika exposure in- utero may have hidden effects, such as behavioural problems or learning disabilities, that are not apparent at birth. In a recent paper, WHO researcher Mary Kay Kindhauser wrote that Zika “appears to have changed in character,” noting its transition from a mild infection to one causing “large outbreaks linked with neurological disorders.”