From Medpage Today
November 24, 2019
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — About a third of toddlers born to mothers with probable or confirmed Zika virus infection in Puerto Rico were associated with developmental delays, a researcher said here.
A small study of 49 children with Zika exposure found that 16 of these children had below average or poor scores at age 18 months, as measured by the Peabody Developmental Scales Gross Motor Quotient Standard Score Classification, reported Luisa Alvarado-Domenech, MD, of Ponce Health Sciences University in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
“As we have learned … in the literature, the most severe presentation [of Zika in children] is congenital Zika syndrome, but we know the spectrum of disease is much broader,” she said at a presentation at the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene annual meeting. “We have identified infants with microcephaly without brain imaging abnormalities … and infants without apparent birth defects that have … developmental delays.”