Zika: It's Not Over Until It's Really Over....

"We are still early in the Zika story, and we still have lot to learn about how these children will grow and develop. We expect there will be multiple outbreaks in the future [around the world]."

"I think the bottom line is that the Zika story is not over. People may feel like it's behind us. For these children, it's not over, and we need to know as much as possible so that we can be prepared [should something similar happens again]."

"There remain] opportunities for improvement [in the screening of children who may have been exposed to Zika in utero]."

"We really urge parents to get recommended care — brain images after birth, having measurements taken, getting a developmental screening and having an eye evaluation."

Margaret Honein, director, U.S. Center of Disease Control Division of Congenital and Developmental Disorders

Maria de Fatima, right, joins her 18-month-old son, Joaquim, who was born with Zika-related microcephaly, in a manual-dexterity therapy session in Recife, Brazil, in May. (Eraldo Peres/AP)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control advised couples to abstain from sex or to use condoms for a minimum six-month period following the event of a male partner contracting Zika. That has now changed, changed however in recognition of the importance of new findings, leading health officials to alter that recommendation only this week, from six to three months since research newly concluded that one of every seven babies born to American mothers infected with Zika during pregnancy developed a health condition of some kind. Linked to that finding is that the risk of sexual transmission is narrower than was thought to be the case.

The findings in question represent the data outcome of the first long-term study of its kind. Focusing on Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories where most Zika cases were discovered as the disease swept across the Americas over two years ago, children born with the Zika syndrome pointed researchers toward the sheer numbers involved. Infection during pregnancy can lead to severe brain-related birth defects in babies, even though when most people become infected they may have symptoms ranging from mild to irritating but they don't tend to become ill.

Letting down their guard and failing to realize that although adults are able to shrug off the symptoms of Zika, pregnant women carrying the infection can transmit it in alarming numbers to their offspring. For babies there is no resemblance to the mild illness with fever, rash and joint pain that results in infected adults; infection during pregnancy can have infinitely more serious consequences. The new mega-study searched for the presence of medical conditions in these affected babies whose symptoms arose after birth.

A mother stands in her home with her 2-month-old son, who was diagnosed with microcephaly – a condition linked to the mosquito-borne Zika virus – in Puerto Rico in 2016.  The Associated Press

This was a seriously ambitious study that looked at 1,450 infants of one year of age and older whose mothers had been infected while pregnant with the Zika virus. Most of these occurred in Puerto Rico, but American Samoa, the Marshall Islands, the U.S Virgin Islands and Micronesia births were also included in the survey. Six percent of the children had birth defects; abnormally small heads (microcephaly), damaged brains, or eye irregularities -- amounting to roughly 30 times the rate that afflicts the general population of children.

Later-developing problems likely Zika-caused, including seizures, developmental delays and difficulty swallowing or moving, encountered by the researchers, increased the percentage involved to 14% birth defects resulting from infected pregnancies. During the course of the study, researchers found that some children were not receiving medical attention to determine whether any problems existed. Only a third were recommended for eye exams by a specialist, half received a hearing evaluation and fewer than two-thirds were given brain scans.

The obvious  takeaway was that children requiring treatment or therapy or both will be missing out. Needless to say, poverty plays a part in factoring in who gets important medical advice and tests, and who does not. Lack of education surrounding the dangers involved and cautionary action to be taken is also reflected in poverty. Zika can be spread through sex or blood transfusions, not only through infected mosquitoes' bites.