WHO: Cast surveillance net beyond microcephaly Current evidence and unpublished data coming into the WHO are showing a wider range of birth defects besides microcephaly, including craniofacial disproportion, spasticity, seizures, irritability, eye problems, and brainstem dysfunction, leading to, for example, feeding difficulties. The WHO said clinicians are seeing a range of severity, including neurologic problems in babies born with normal head circumference, similar to those associated with other maternal infections. Unpublished data from Colombia and Panama, however, hint that Zika virus might be linked to other problems in babies, affecting the genitourinary, cardiac, and digestive systems, according to the report. The WHO said it has established a process to define the new congenital syndrome, which will focus on mapping and analyzing the clinical manifestations. Experts will need good antenatal and postnatal histories and follow-up data, lab findings, and neuroimaging results to flesh out the syndrome, the agency added.
Source: WHO: Array of Zika birth defects equals new syndrome | CIDRAP








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