Heartbreaking New Zika Pictures Could Prevent Abortions

Newly released images illustrate the devastating toll Zika can take on children whose mothers were infected with the virus during pregnancy.  The pictures will serve as an important tool for doctors performing ultrasounds to far more accurately determine which unborn babies have indeed sustained damage from Zika, and which ones have not. 

The photos are part of a report published in the journal Radiology.  They include ultrasound pictures and brain scans of 45 Brazilian babies whose mothers were infected with the Zika virus during pregnancy.  Brazil is the nation with highest number of babies with Zika-related birth defects.

"The images show the worst brain infections that doctors will ever see," says study coauthor Deborah Levine, M.D., director of Obstetric & Gynecologic Ultrasound at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "From an imaging standpoint, the abnormalities in the brain are very severe when compared to other congenital infections." 

The images can be used as a tool to possibly save the lives of children at risk of being aborted.  Pregnant women who suspect an abnormality in their unborn child may think it has Zika and therefore choose to abort it.  However, the new imaging can allow pregnant women to compare their ultrasounds with the images of actual fetuses with Zika, and perhaps overcome the fear that they are carrying a child with Zika.

Dr. Adre du Plessis, director of the Fetal Medicine Institute of Children's National Health System, told The New York Times, "If there's any uncertainty on ultrasound, we're concerned that couples that are not risk-takers and don't want to gamble might be terminating perfectly normal babies, which is of course a concern to us," he said, "So there's a lot riding on being able to image accurately."

"More than one ultrasound or MRI scan in pregnancy may be needed to assess the growth and development abnormalities of the brain," said Dr. Levine.

Researchers suggest microcephaly, the birth defect most closely associated with Zika is merely "the tip of the iceberg," as there are far more impairments.  Microcephaly is identified by a child's unusually small head.  However, some of the children with birth defects from Zika do not have small heads, but, like children with microcephaly, have severely damaged brains.

The babies' skulls frequently had a collapsed appearance with overlapping skin folds. The researchers believe the unusual appearance of the skull is due to a combination of the small brain as it develops, but also a result of what at some point was likely a larger head size—due to too much fluid in the brain—that then decompresses, giving the skull the collapsed shape.

All of the images show damage to the area of the brain that controls language, emotion and problem solving.  All of the brains showed signs of scarring, indicating a virus has injured the brain, even to the point of halting its development entirely.

Zika appears to be most dangerous when transmitted from a pregnant mother to her fetus during the first trimester of pregnancy, increasing the likelihood of severe brain defects in the baby.

Zika is mainly spread to humans from the bite of an infected mosquito. Symptoms may include fever, rash, joint or muscle pain, headache, and bloodshot eyes. However, many people infected with Zika have no symptoms at all. Although the current Zika outbreak is centered in Brazil, it has spread to countries and territories around the world, including the United States.  Women who are pregnant or who are considering pregnancy should wear insect repellant, avoid stagnant water and other mosquito breeding grounds, wear long sleeves, pants and hats and stay indoors as much as possible, keeping the door and windows closed, using air conditioning rather than screens.