Scientists Found Zika Could Cause Brain Damage in Infants Infected after Birth

BY PATRICK COX

We already know about Zika-linked Guillain-Barré syndrome, which is a serious condition. This autoimmune disorder attacks the peripheral nervous system (PNS) that handles communications between the central nervous system (CNS), the brain and spine, and the rest of the body.

Scientists, however, have recently found more neurological diseases associated with Zika. The latest bad news comes from Brazilian scientists who report a Zika-related increase in another rare autoimmune disorder called acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM). 

The correlation with this disease, characterized by inflammation and swelling in the brain and spinal cord, takes the threat of the Zika virus to a new level.

A more aggressive brain disease

Guillain-Barré causes numbness and muscle weakness in minor cases. More serious ones can result in total paralysis and death through suffocation because the muscles involved in breathing stop working. Developed countries have iron lung technology that can keep patients alive long enough to recover, and most adults recover completely.

The developing world, however, doesn’t have the facilities to deal with the coming surge of Guillain-Barré, but I’ll focus on the developed world first.
Now, ADEM is a much scarier disease than Guillain-Barré because it gets past the PNS and hits the CNS in the brain and spinal cord directly. 

Damage to the CNS, unlike the PNS, is much harder for the body to repair and can produce permanent neurological disorders in the seat of consciousness.

ADEM may not increase the public’s fear level in the short term, as it doesn’t cause obvious physical deformities like microcephaly—which makes children’s heads visibly smaller. The appearance of ADEM in the Zika-infected population, however, is very ominous because people of all ages can contract the disease.

The game-changer here is that children, whose brains are still developing, may suffer permanent neurological damage if they contract ADEM from Zika-carrying mosquitos. In other words, Zika could change how young victims think and who they’ll become.

Children are in danger

Until now, we thought that Zika’s biggest threat to the developed world was the potential impact on fetuses. Yes, Guillain-Barré is sometimes a serious problem for adults, but so is the flu. It’s not that I don’t care about grownups, but I care a lot more about Zika’s ability to permanently disable otherwise healthy babies.

This may be purely emotional, but I can barely process the tragedy of babies who will never live normal lives because of the Zika virus. Their loss of ability to one day care for themselves, have families of their own, or experience the intellectual pleasures that anybody capable of reading this article takes for granted is almost unimaginable.

When scientists first discovered Zika-linked brain damage, they believed that the window of vulnerability would be relatively short, probably only the first few weeks or months of fetal development. Now we know that life-long damage can take place throughout pregnancy.

If Zika can damage a baby’s brain in the 38th or even last week in utero, why would a baby infected after delivery be safe from brain damage? Scientists have found, in fact, that children as old as six years who contract ADEM can suffer permanently lowered IQs and develop life-long behavioral disorders.

Now, it seems that the Zika virus poses a greater threat to children… a danger that extends beyond gestation.

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