Dead in the womb: New studies reveal Zika's real threat

'People are verry worried, there is a lot of fear and concern.'

A new study indicates the Zika virus is worse than initially believed for pregnant women and their unborn children.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - According to Discovery News, a new study conducted by UCLA researchers at the Fiocruz Institute in Brazil found that nearly one-third of Zika-infected expecting mothers discovered abnormalities in their unborn children.
 
The abnormalities ranged from micrcephaly to problems with the placenta and lesions in the spine or brain.
 

Dr. Karin Nielsen-Saines, professor of clinical pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, is a co-author on the study. Nielsen-Saines reported, "Zika definitely causes the problems. We think [it] is only the tip of the iceburg."
 
Brain tissues were shown to calcify, amniotic fluid abnormalities, abnormally small bodies and two stillbirths were recorded in the study.
 
Nielsen-Saines explained viral infections are prone to including several problems, and now that Zika is linked to so many, researchers have suggested the term "congenital Zika virus syndrome" for a more accurate description of the virus.
 
The 88 women involved in the trial were all tested for Zika and followed over time, whether they tested positive or not. Of those who were not diagnosed with Zika, there were no fetal abnormalities. Of those who tested positive for the virus, nearly 30 percent saw fetal abnormalities in their ultrasounds.
 
Twelve percent of the infected women had children suffering microcephaly, with most of the cases including a growth restriction that left the entire child abnormally small.
 

Seven women discovered their babies had lesions on their brains or spinal cords, or had other central nervous system complications. Seven others had placental insufficiency, meaning the baby is unable to receive the proper amount of oxygen and nutrients from his or her mother.
 
Two of the women who tested positive for Zika had stillbirths at only 36 and thirty-eight weeks. Both had been infected late in their pregnancies.
 
One other woman, who was infected later in her pregnancy, was forced to have her child "urgently delivered," Nielson-Saines said. Had the woman waited, the child would have died.
 
The conclusion the researchers reached was there "may be a high risk of fetal demise with infections in the last trimester," Neilson-Saines explained.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist who was not involved in the study, described the findings as "what people have been waiting for. This is the closest we've gotten to causation."
 
Though a single study can not provide substantial facts, Adalja explained, "for all intents and purposes, this justifies the concern raised early on," that some microcephaly cases in Brazil originated from Zika.

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