The Zika virus surged over Latin America just a few years before COVID-19 became an international concern's present public health disaster. Newspapers were flooded with dramatic photographs of kids born with little heads. Scientists had no idea why it was happening, how prevalent it was, or what it meant for these children as they grew older if exposed to Zika during pregnancy.
After a few years, more information regarding Zika and its effects on children is becoming available. Researchers have been evaluating groups of these kids as they become older and comparing them to kids who haven't been exposed to Zika.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said 1,000 infants were delivered in the United States to mothers who had Zika throughout their pregnancies in 2016. Researchers discovered that roughly 94 percent of kids delivered to Zika-infected mothers looked normal at birth, with no symptoms of microcephaly, nearly a year after the emergency was announced.
Long-Term Zika Effects Solved?
RECIFE, BRAZIL - JANUARY 26: Aedes aegypti mosquitos are seen in a lab at the Fiocruz institute on January 26, 2016 in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil. The mosquito transmits the Zika virus and is being studied at the institute. In the last four months, authorities have recorded close to 4,000 cases in Brazil in which the mosquito-borne Zika virus may have led to microcephaly in infants. The ailment results in an abnormally small head in newborns and is associated with various disorders including decreased brain development. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Zika virus outbreak is likely to spread throughout nearly all the Americas. At least twelve cases in the United States have now been confirmed by the CDC.
NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin interviewed Dr. Sarah Mulkey, a child neurologist in the Prenatal Pediatrics Institute at Children's National, and a mother and child from Mulkey's study, Yaritza Martinez and Yariel. Yaritza was diagnosed with Zika while pregnant with her 5-year-old son, Yariel. Martinez's viewpoint is straightforward. "He's a healthy boy," she told NPR.
On the other hand, Mulkey is keeping a tight eye on his progress. She said that a baby doesn't have to do anything other than feed and generate a lot of diapers for its parents. However, it should be noted that when children get older, things become complex. Mulkey's study, "Neurodevelopmental Abnormalities in Children With In Utero Zika Virus Exposure Without Congenital Zika Syndrome," noted some developmental problems of some 70 children along the way.
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She adds that fine motor abilities appear to be an area where kids have some challenges. She mentioned that most motor functions like running and leaping appear to be a little bit better. Another neonatologist, Dr. Karen Puopolo, believes it's critical to watch for minor developmental disparities before they become a significant issue for children.
A youngster who has a minor difficulty with a basic activity may act out in frustration, earning the reputation of "a fidgety misbehaving child" and missing out on academic possibilities. It's also important to look at cases when a mother contracted Zika while pregnant, according to Puopolo. And that research might be pertinent to COVID, as experts question what would show up in children whose mothers were infected years from now.
What People Can Learn From Zika Virus
This work might teach us anything about the current pandemic. Mulkey notes that these things can influence early brain development when a pregnant woman is unwell with fever and inflammation. She and her colleagues also observed these similar types of long-term impacts in their children if a mother gets COVID-19 during pregnancy and has a fever or if a mother has viral flu during pregnancy.
According to the CDC, there have been more than 150,000 COVID-19 instances in pregnant women so far. More than a hundred times the number of kids delivered in the United States to moms who had Zika. Mulkey is also studying roughly 50 infants through the Children's Congenital Infection Program born to a mother infected with COVID-19 during pregnancy or the first several weeks after delivery.
However, there are some significant variances. Microcephaly, a severe birth abnormality, is one of the most serious side effects of Zika infection. According to Puopolo, there is no evidence that COVID-19 infection causes a specific birth abnormality. However, having COVID-19 during pregnancy has been linked to an increased chance of the baby being delivered preterm (per CDC), related to some health issues ranging from cerebral palsy to hearing and vision issues.
What happens to the newborn, though? Is it better for your mother to have COVID in the first trimester, when all of your organs are fully grown, or in the second or third trimester when your brain is still growing? What if she's ill when she gives birth, and the baby gets it as well? Does any of this matter when the child is five years old? Nobody, even researchers, knows yet. But these are questions that can only be answered by long-term research.
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