{"id":54386,"date":"2016-12-27T10:42:14","date_gmt":"2016-12-27T20:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=54386"},"modified":"2020-03-13T15:35:29","modified_gmt":"2020-03-14T01:35:29","slug":"zika-virus-infected-mothers-delivered-babies-with-microcephaly-as-early-as-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2016\/12\/27\/zika-virus-infected-mothers-delivered-babies-with-microcephaly-as-early-as-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"Zika virus-infected mothers delivered babies with microcephaly as early as 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NXmJV8c3rBY?showinfo=0\" title=\"Youtube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M&#257;noa <a href=\"http:\/\/jabsom.hawaii.edu\/\">John A. Burns School of Medicine<\/a> (JABSOM) scientists have discovered that severe birth defects related to infection with the Zika virus (ZIKV) occurred much earlier than in 2016, when the connection was first made between the virus and an increased likelihood of microcephaly during outbreaks of <abbr>ZIKV<\/abbr> infection in Brazil and Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n<p><abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> scientists <a href=\"http:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plosntds\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.pntd.0005262\">published their findings in December<\/a> in the scientific journal <em><a href=\"http:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plosntds\/\"><abbr title=\"Public Library of Science\">PLOS<\/abbr> Neglected Tropical Diseases<\/a><\/em>, adding to the potential evidence of a link between <abbr>ZIKV<\/abbr> infection and microcephaly, a congenital condition associated with incomplete brain development and characterized by an abnormal smallness of the head.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Related <abbr>UH<\/abbr> News story<\/strong>: <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2016\/06\/01\/uh-manoa-researchers-to-study-live-zika-virus\/\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa researchers to study live Zika virus<\/a><\/em>, June 1, 2016<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Patient information and blood samples were collected voluntarily from mothers in Honolulu who delivered babies between 2007 and 2013 at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaiipacifichealth.org\/kapiolani\/\">Kapi&#699;olani Medical Center for Women and Children<\/a>, a <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Pacific Health hospital affiliated with <abbr>JABSOM<\/abbr>. The samples were collected and stored at the <a href=\"http:\/\/uhbio.jabsom.hawaii.edu\/Home.html\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> Biorepository<\/a> (UHB) after obtaining written informed consent from the mothers. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;As per the information in the <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii Biorepository\">UHB<\/abbr>, no mothers gave birth to babies with microcephaly in 2007 and 2008,&rdquo; said <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/tropicalmedicine\/?page_id=473\">Vivek R. Nerurkar<\/a><\/strong>, chair of the <a href=\"http:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/tropicalmedicine\/\">Department of Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology<\/a>. &ldquo;However, from 2009 onwards, we identified six mothers who gave birth to babies with microcephaly. Of the six, <abbr>ZIKV<\/abbr> antibodies were detected in three, fifty percent, of the mothers who delivered babies with microcephaly, suggesting presence of positive Zika virus cases and associated microcephaly in the United States as early as 2009.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Potential changes to women&#8217;s health practices<\/h2>\n<p>Nerurkar believes the growing evidence of an association between <abbr>ZIKV<\/abbr> infection and the devastating brain damage in infants justifies a new practice in women&#8217;s health.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We need to be more proactive in tracking pregnant women and testing for the <abbr>ZIKV<\/abbr> ahead of time (before birth),&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It may be time for health care professionals to routinely caution newly pregnant mothers (or those planning to become pregnant) about the <abbr>ZIKV<\/abbr>, and offer pre-natal tests to detect for the presence of the virus.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Ideally, Nerurkar said, families can plan for safe pregnancies by avoiding travel to areas of known <abbr>ZIKV<\/abbr> outbreaks. In 2016, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/\">U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.who.int\/en\/\">World Health Organization<\/a> have issued travel alerts about locations with confirmed, locally acquired Zika virus infections.<\/p>\n<p>The <abbr>UH<\/abbr> researchers expressed their gratitude for the women who agreed to voluntarily donate blood and placenta samples to build the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Biorepository archive. &ldquo;This has been an indispensable resource in our research,&rdquo; said Nerurkar. <\/p>\n<p>Nerurkar leads a team of scientists at <abbr>UH<\/abbr> working to develop a vaccine for <abbr>ZIKV<\/abbr> infection as well as robust diagnostic assays to rapidly detect <abbr>ZIKV<\/abbr> and other mosquito-borne viral infections. After the award of a Zika emergency response grant this year from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nih.gov\/\">National Institutes of Health<\/a>, his team members are also working to understand how <abbr>ZIKV<\/abbr> infection in men makes them susceptible to transmit the virus to their sexual partners, even though the men may appear symptom-free.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Related <abbr>UH<\/abbr> News story<\/strong>: <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2016\/12\/02\/how-zika-is-spread-through-sex\/\">How Zika is spread through sex<\/a><\/em>, December 2, 2016<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>&#8212;By Tina Shelton<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_46567\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-46567\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/manoa-jabsom-nerurkar.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"414\" class=\"size-full wp-image-46567\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/manoa-jabsom-nerurkar.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/manoa-jabsom-nerurkar-260x174.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-46567\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vivek Nerurkar in his laboratory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> scientists&#8217; finding adds to evidence linking the virus and severe fetal abnormalities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":54435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,12],"tags":[165,31,429,9,56,1128],"class_list":["post-54386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-video","tag-health","tag-john-a-burns-school-of-medicine","tag-tropical-medicine-and-medical-microbiology","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","tag-zika","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/manoa-jabsom-nerurkar-lab-f.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54386"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113745,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54386\/revisions\/113745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}