Two studies, published in the Journal of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, show that infants with suspected or confirmed congenital Zika syndrome tend to suffer from a slew of visual problems.
For the first study, researchers examined 70 infants with microcephaly in Brazil from January 2016 to May 2016. They found 25 infants had ophthalmologic changes:
● Eighteen infants displayed intraocular abnormalities, including macular chorioretinal atrophy, mottled retinal pigment epithelium and optic nerve pallor
● Seven infants had strabismus or nystagmus without intraocular abnormalities
● Eleven infants, who could be tested for visual acuity, were all below normal range
Researchers could not confirm the presence of the Zika virus among this cohort, but all the patients were screened for other infectious conditions that could cause microcephaly.
The other study included 32 infants born in Brazil from May to December 2015 with confirmed Zika infection. All the patients suffered from visual impairment. Fourteen patients had retinal and/or optic nerve damage and also had neuroimaging or neurological abnormalities detected at birth.
Of the infants' mothers, 26 reported symptoms or signs compatible with ZIKV infection during their pregnancies.
"Limited data [is] available regarding the rate of ophthalmologic findings in infants born to women with [Zika] infection during pregnancy. As most studies have only carefully examined infants with presumed or confirmed congenital [Zika] infection who have microcephaly, more studies are needed to understand ocular findings in those infants with congenital [Zika] infection without microcephaly," said Sonja A. Rasmussen, MD, who penned an accompanying editorial to the two studies.