According to a study published in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology, researchers may have found a link between the Zika virus and infants born with eye abnormalities that threaten vision.
The study described damage to the retina or optic nerve in 10 of 29 newborns examined at Robert Santos General Hospital in Salvador, Brazil. All the infants were presumed to have been infected with the Zika virus and had small heads, a condition called microcephaly.
Here are six points:
1. Seven out of the 10 newborns had defects in both eyes, while three infants had damage in a single eye.
2. The most common problems were black speckled lesions in the back of the eye, large areas of tissue damage in the retina itself or damage in the layer of blood vessels and tissue below the retina.
3. Lee M. Jampol, MD, a professor of ophthalmology at Northwestern University in Chicago, and a co-writer of an editorial accompanying the study, said exactly how much these babies can see is unknown at this point, but the lesions means there's damage.
4. The lesions themselves can't be repaired, said Rubens Belfort Jr., MD, the study's senior author and a professor of ophthalmology at the Federal University of São Paulo in Brazil.
5. It is not yet clear whether a baby with a normal-sized head who was exposed to Zika in utero might develop ocular damage.
6. The study's authors urged that all infants with microcephaly routinely receive examinations for lesions in the eyes.
