Zika virus: American scientists confirm connection with birth defects
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that they found evidence that the Zika virus is a major cause of birth defects registered in Brazil and several other countries.
The director of the federal agency, which is a division of the US Department of Health, Thomas Frieden, calls these results a turning point in the scientific understanding of Zika virus and its connection with microcephaly, which is why children are born with an abnormally small head size and inadequate brain development.
“There is no longer any doubt that Zika causes microcephaly,” Frieden says. “Never before in the history of mankind has a mosquito bite led to such destructive pathologies in embryos.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said last week it had reached "scientific consensus" linking the Zika virus to microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome, an acute autoimmune disease that can paralyze people.
Despite the fact that the Zika virus was first registered in 1954, until last year, no one suspected that it could lead to similar post-natal consequences.
Previously, according to one version, the reason for the large number of newborns with microcephaly in Brazil was considered not to be mosquito bites, but chemicals that kill insect larvae.
The virus is spreading quickly throughout Latin America and other regions from people who have become infected in Brazil and several other countries.
In the US state of Florida, as ForumDaily wrote, it was registered 32 cases of infection with Zika virus, in all cases - during overseas travel. However, the virus can spread not only through mosquito bites, but also sexual.
Read also on ForumDaily:
Ukrainians head Zika virus research in the USA
In the US, 14 investigates cases of Zika virus infection through sex
In Florida, three more pregnant women found Zika virus
Doctors USA: Zika virus is transmitted from mother to child
The White House is asking for $ 1,8 billion to fight the Zika virus
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