Babies’ eye damage and Zika? Brazil study suggests a link

In a search for possible causes behind the uptick in microcephaly cases, doctors pointed out that seventeen of the cases correlated to mothers who had been infected with the Zika virus.

Experts investigating the virus suggest that it may cause other abnormalities in unborn children’s brains that are “not as obvious” as microcephaly.

Dr. Valeria Barros treats a 6-week old baby born with microcephaly at the Lessa de Andrade polyclinic during a physical therapy session on January 29, 2016 in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil.

The abortion industry has found its “silver lining” in the Zika epidemic and instead of promoting research into remedies to treat or counteract the virus, they have preferred to play into people’s worst fears to push for abortion-on-demand in countries like El Salvador that now restrict or prohibit abortion.

The mosquito-borne disease linked to birth defects in babies is expected to affect up to 4million people, according to the World Health Organization. This is in addition to microcephaly, a condition characterized with having a very small head.

Among the 23 mothers who reported symptoms during pregnancy, 18 or 78.3% reported Zika virus symptoms during the first trimester of pregnancy, researchers said. Symptoms include low-grade fever, maybe a rash, possible conjunctivitis (pink eye), and some joint pain.

Abnormalities of the eye were observed in 10 of the 29 infants (34.5%) with microcephaly; of the 20 eyes in 10 children, 17 eyes (85%) had ophthalmoscopic abnormalities. The most common findings were focal pigment mottling of the retina and chorioretinal atrophy in 11 eyes, optic nerve abnormalities in eight eyes, iris coloboma in two eyes of one patient and lens subluxation in one eye. Three suffered from eye damage in one eye. He said the damage seen in the study is likely irreversible, but it’s too soon to know if any of the babies will be blind.

“This study can help guide clinical management and practice, as we observed that a high proportion of the infants with microcephaly had ophthalmologic lesions”, the team wrote in JAMA Ophthalmology. Several of them are also impaired with respect to vision and hearing.

While it is not clear if the eye damage occurs in utero the moment the baby is exposed to Zika virus, it is still important to consider the possibility so that the proper preventive measures may be taken.