Congenital Zika Infection and the Risk of Neurodevelopmental, Neurological, and Urinary Track Disorders in Early Childhood. A Systematic Review.

Evangelia Antoniou,Eirini Orovou,Christos Orovas,Chrysa Voyiatzaki,Paraskevi Eva Andronikidi,Angeliki Sarella,Ermioni Palaska,Nikolaos Rigas,Georgios Iatrakis

doi:10.3390/v13081671

Evangelia Antoniou, Eirini Orovou + Show 7 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/v13081671

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Abstract

It was late 2015 when Northeast Brazil noticed a worrying increase in neonates born with microcephaly and other congenital malformations. These abnormalities, characterized by an abnormally small head and often neurological impairment and later termed Congenital Zika Syndrome, describe the severity of neurodevelopmental and nephrological outcomes in early childhood, and the implication of microcephaly at birth. The purpose of the study was to describe the neurodevelopmental outcomes in children exposed to Zika virus during fetal life, with and without microcephaly at birth. The systematic review included research studies about the neurodevelopmental outcomes with and without microcephaly, as well as nephrological outcomes in early childhood. We searched PubMed, Crossref, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Google Scholar publications and selected 19 research articles published from 2018 to 2021. Most studies have linked the severity of microcephaly in childbirth to the neurodevelopmental and urinary outcomes in early childhood. However, most children without microcephaly at birth develop typically, while others may be at risk for language impairment.

Highlights

The Zika epidemic first caught the global attention in late 2015 when Brazil started reporting an increase in cases of children born with microcephaly potentially linked to the outbreak
The 19 articles included in this systematic review have been carried out mainly in Brazil
The Pecanha et al (2020) [20] cohort study describes the neurodevelopment of children who were born asymptomatic after their intrauterine exposure to Zika virus but at the age of 2, they showed neurodevelopmental delay in three domains, motor, cognition, and mainly in language

Summary

Introduction

The Zika epidemic first caught the global attention in late 2015 when Brazil started reporting an increase in cases of children born with microcephaly potentially linked to the outbreak. Zika virus can be transmitted sexually from a person who has Zika virus infection [1]. After this outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Zika virus (ZIKV) infection as a Public Health emergency of global interest [2] and since investigations have begun into the causal link between zika virus and microcephaly in infants [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. Is characterized by a reduction of more than 2 SDs in the head circumference depending on the sex and age [13]

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