Zika Update

More locally acquired cases in Florida; fetal brain damage investigated

kerry grens
| 2 min read

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FLICKR, USDA, STEPHEN AUSMUSThe number of people who have been infected with Zika virus carried by mosquitoes in Florida rose this week to 43, including the first cases reported in Pinellas County and, today (August 24), additional cases reported in Palm Beach County. According to a statement from the governor’s office, the Florida Department of Health “has begun door-to-door outreach and sampling in Pinellas County and mosquito abatement and reduction activities are also taking place.”

Concerns about the extent of brain damage that Zika can cause to fetuses are also mounting. In a study published Tuesday (August 23) in Radiology, researchers from the Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil, and their colleagues described 45 cases of Zika-related microcephaly in the country. One of their striking observations was that a number of babies had a characteristically misshapen head, suggesting that the head was once swollen, and then collapsed.

Most commonly, the babies had reductions in the size of their cortices and corpora callosa, while their lateral ventricals were enlarged. Calcifications were present in a number of regions of the babies’ brains, and their spinal cords and brainstems frequently showed abnormalities.

“I think we were all aware that Zika causes brain abnormalities, ...

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  • kerry grens

    Kerry Grens

    Kerry served as The Scientist’s news director until 2021. Before joining The Scientist in 2013, she was a stringer for Reuters Health, the senior health and science reporter at WHYY in Philadelphia, and the health and science reporter at New Hampshire Public Radio. Kerry got her start in journalism as a AAAS Mass Media fellow at KUNC in Colorado. She has a master’s in biological sciences from Stanford University and a biology degree from Loyola University Chicago.

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