Zika’s Effects on Babies Can Show Up Later

The CDC finds one in seven children exposed to the virus in utero experiences health problems by age one.

Kerry Grens

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Around 14 percent of babies whose mothers contracted Zika while pregnant ended up with a birth defect, developmental abnormality, or both, according a report released by the US government today (August 7). Some of the symptoms didn’t show up right away when the babies were born, but emerged in later testing.

“The full range of long-term health problems caused by Zika will remain unknown until these babies mature,” according to a summary of the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The agency collected health data on 1,450 babies at least one year old who were exposed to Zika in utero and born in a US territory. Six percent of the children had a Zika-associated birth defect, but others’ symptoms showed up later in life. Among 822 babies who did not have a birth defect, 14 had a brain abnormality that was revealed ...

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Meet the Author

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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