Ocular abnormalities in congenital Zika syndrome: are the ophthalmoscopic findings “the top of the iceberg”?

Publication date: Available online 24 April 2018 Source:Progress in Retinal and Eye Research Author(s): João Rafael de Oliveira Dias, Camila V. Ventura, Bruno de Paula Freitas, Juliana Prazeres, Liana O. Ventura, Vasco Bravo-Filho, Tomas Aleman, Albert Icksang Ko, Andréa Zin, Rubens Belfort, Mauricio Maia Zika virus (ZIKV) is an arbovirus mainly transmitted to humans by mosquitoes from Aedes genus. Other ways of transmission include the perinatal and sexual routes, blood transfusion, and laboratory exposure. Although the first human cases were registered in 1952 in African countries, outbreaks were only reported since 2007, when entire Pacific islands were affected. In March 2015, the first cases of ZIKV acute infection were notified in Brazil and, to date, 48 countries and territories in the Americas have confirmed local mosquito-borne transmission of ZIKV. Until 2015, ZIKV infection was thought to only cause asymptomatic or mild exanthematous febrile infections. However, after explosive ZIKV outbreaks in Polynesia and Latin American countries, it was confirmed that ZIKV could also lead to Guillain-Barré syndrome and congenital birth abnormalities. These abnormalities, which can include neurologic, ophthalmologic, audiologic, and skeletal findings, are now considered congenital Zika syndrome (CZS). Brain abnormalities in CZS include cerebral calcifications, malformations of cortical development, ventriculomegaly, lissencephaly, hypoplasia of the cerebellum an...
Source: Progress in Retinal and Eye Research - Category: Opthalmology Source Type: research