FLICKR, TATIANA VDBZika has been linked to microcephaly and other birth defects in babies born to mothers infected with the virus. However recent research has hinted that this association is strongest during the first trimester, and trails off as the pregnancy continues. A preliminary study published earlier this week (June 15) in The New England Journal of Medicine lends support to that theory, reporting that mothers infected with the virus in the third trimester of pregnancy are unlikely to give birth to babies with noticeable defects.
“I think it’s somewhat reassuring that there were not major birth defects identified” following infection during the third trimester, study coauthor Margaret Honein of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told NPR’s Goats and Soda. “But I want to make sure we understand there is still a lot that we need to know.”
The data for the study came from national surveillance of Zika cases in Colombia since August 2015. Researchers found that, of the 1,850 women infected with the virus during the third trimester of pregnancy, more than 90 percent gave birth to infants without any “apparent abnormalities,” the CDC-led team wrote in its paper.
The results are in line with previous observations of data collected in Brazil, University of Pittsburgh ...
