Healthy babies exposed to Zika in the womb may suffer developmental delays
A small group of toddlers in Colombia missed milestones for movement and social interaction
Babies from Colombia who were born healthy after being exposed to the Zika virus in the womb showed signs of neurodevelopmental delays by 18 months of age, a small study finds. The work supports long-term follow-up of babies whose mothers had the viral infection during pregnancy, the researchers say.
As a group, the 70 babies exposed to Zika didn’t hit certain developmental milestones for movement and social interaction around the times expected for healthy, nonexposed babies of the same age, researchers report January 6 in JAMA Pediatrics.
Overall, the children lagged in mobility skills such as rolling over or sitting up, and in play skills like peekaboo and searching for an object that has dropped out of sight, says Sarah Mulkey, a fetal neonatal neurologist at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. Within the group, some children developed as expected, some showed obvious development delays, and some showed more subtle delays that caregivers might not have noticed.
Because there was variability between individuals, “looking at a population enables one to see overall trends,” says neurologist Ken Tyler of the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, who was not involved in the research. “We need to aggressively follow all children whose mothers were exposed to Zika during pregnancy to understand the nature of their neurological delays.”