This week WAidid suggests the article published on Archives of Disease in Childhood on March 2016 about the outbreak of Zika virus disease and its implications for pediatricians and neonatologists.

SUMMARY:
Prior to 2007, Zika virus (ZIKV) was generally considered an arbovirus of limited importance, causing a mild self-limiting febrile illness. Now, a large, ongoing outbreak of ZIKV that started in Brazil in early 2015 is spreading rapidly across the Americas and has been potentially linked to congenital malformations (including microcephaly) and Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS).
The vast majority of ZIKV infections are asymptomatic (80%) or selflimiting, with most individuals developing a mild self-limiting febrile illness.
Infection with ZIKV in pregnancy is potentially associated with microcephaly and congenital malformations, particularly those of the central nervous system. ZIKV has also been associated with GBS. ZIKV should be considered in the differential diagnosis of. any patient with fever returning from a country where ZIKV outbreaks are ongoing; any neurological and autoimmune syndromes (including GBS) in a patient who has recently travelled to a country where ZIKV outbreaks are ongoing; miscarriage, stillbirth, in-utero death due to infection, congenital infection, microcephaly or any other congenital (especially neurological) abnormality in any infant born to a mother who travelled to a country where ZIKV outbreaks are ongoing.

AUTHORS: Ladhani SN, O'Connor C, Kirkbride H, Brooks T, Morgan D

To read the article online click HERE