Left: MRI of a person without microcephaly; right: MRI scan of a person with microcephalyWIKIMEDIA, PLOS
Last year, 5 percent of the babies born to nearly 1,000 mothers in the U.S. who showed signs of Zika virus infection during their pregnancies had birth defects, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported this week (April 3). Among babies born to the 250 US mothers with confirmed Zika infection during their pregnancies, just shy of 10 percent had birth defects.
The agency’s latest analysis is based on data from the US Zika Pregnancy Registry, which does not include information from Puerto Rico (where CDC has a separate database).
During a press briefing, CDC Acting Director Anne Schuchat told reporters that researchers and clinicians have observed a variety of brain-related birth defects in babies with congenital Zika infection, beyond microcephaly. “Some ...
