Microcephaly - Science topic

The question is interesting. I used to work in a community pharmacy, and we went from village to village, sometimes on horseback or by landrover, educating families on cleanliness and building immunity. There was no Zika in Lesotho at the time, but there was a high incidence of PEM in children from 3 months to about 5 years and we encouraged families to practice good hygiene to build immunity. So, I am not sure I understand why those "factors" in your question would limit building immunity only to "causes like the Zika virus." What about the bacteria linked to microcephaly?

Microcephaly is a condition where the head (circumference) is smaller than normal. Microcephaly may be caused by genetic abnormalities or by drugs, alcohol, certain viruses, and toxins that are exposed to the fetus during pregnancy and damage the developing brain tissue.

Microcephaly in itself is not a NTD, but is a condition that could be occasioned by a TND. For instance, Zika can spread from a pregnant woman to her fetus. This can result in other severe brain malformations and birth defects. A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine has documented a case in which they found evidence of the Zika virus in the brain of a fetus that displayed the morphology of microcephaly. For more details see the link below.

APOLOGIES: Knowing my post is not connected to the initial question but:

Information added with regard to actuality (has been reported today in Austrian Newspaper for the first time):

MEYER SAUTEUR PM et al:

Research Article

Annals of Neurology, Volume 80, Issue 4 October 2016

Pages 566–580

First published: 26 August 2016   

DOI: 10.1002/ana.24755

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an acute postinfectious immune-mediated polyneuropathy. Although preceding respiratory tract infections with Mycoplasma pneumoniae have been reported in some cases, the role of M. pneumoniae in the pathogenesis of GBS remains unclear. We here cultured, for the first time, M. pneumoniae from a GBS patient with antibodies against galactocerebroside (GalC), which cross-reacted with the isolate. This case prompted us to unravel the role of M. pneumoniae in GBS in a case-control study.

We included 189 adults and 24 children with GBS and compared them to control cohorts for analysis of serum antibodies against M. pneumoniae (n = 479) and GalC (n = 198).

Anti–M. pneumoniae immunoglobulin (Ig) M antibodies were detected in GBS patients and healthy controls in 3% and 0% of adults (p = 0.16) and 21% and 7% of children (p = 0.03), respectively. Anti-GalC antibodies (IgM and/or IgG) were found in 4% of adults and 25% of children with GBS (p = 0.001). Anti-GalC-positive patients showed more-frequent preceding respiratory symptoms, cranial nerve involvement, and a better outcome. Anti-GalC antibodies correlated with anti–M. pneumoniae antibodies (p < 0.001) and cross-reacted with different M. pneumoniae strains. Anti-GalC IgM antibodies were not only found in GBS patients with M. pneumoniae infection, but also in patients without neurological disease (8% vs 9%; p = 0.87), whereas anti-GalC IgG was exclusively found in patients with GBS (9% vs 0%; p = 0.006).

M. pneumoniae infection is associated with GBS, more frequently in children than adults, and elicits anti-GalC antibodies, of which specifically anti-GalC IgG may contribute to the pathogenesis of GBS. Ann Neurol 2016;80:566–580

There are differrent causes of Microcephally in general medicine...We need not to jump to write conclusion without proper investigations 

Dear Ramona! Thank you for your answer. Please have a look some papers about calculating the number of specific cells in microcephaly, and normal brain.

Vladimir

You should retract that assertion as it may be libelous.I am simply trying to get an answer to a medico-legal question

The scientific results show that the cause is Zika virus

Mlakar et al. (2016) Zika Virus Associated with Microcephaly.- NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE · FEBRUARY 2016

Yes unfortunately increasingly it is looking like a Media-Induced Zika Emergency (MIZE) tied to possibly billions of dollars. Zika may well be a terrible virus causing microencephaly, but the scientific evidence to back that claim is next to nothing. Only six cases of possible Zika involvement, along with many other factors viruses/bacteria not ruled out. Really, only in six cases of microcephalie, Zika virus been found in the victims, but are the other potentials ruled out? No. As long as you have backing from MIZE, smaller/independent media and even many scientistis are getting sucked into a story that is no further than a story. If MIZE turns out to be wrong/fake, there will be noone to blame, because then they will say we are not scientists and we are only reporters. But there is potential to make lots and lots of money of this story.

best wishes, Refik

Dear Radhakrishnan,

It seems that pregnant women with the virus may give birth to infants with microcephaly: babies are born with a head circumference below 33 cm and irreversible mental retardation, when they manage to survive.

But health officials also point, each time, as if the existence of that risk seems very likely it does not mean scientifically established. The "causal link" between maternal infection and cranial malformation of the newborn is not indisputably proven. This demonstration will still require different work from sophisticated virological tools. The evidence today are made by this new emerging discipline that is the "spatial and temporal epidemiology"

With my best regards

Prof. Bachir ACHOUR