Mosquito Virus May Have Caused Brain Damage In Thousands Of Babies
Some doctors are advising Brazilian women to delay pregnancy until mosquito season ends.
12/28/2015 11:18 am ET
ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON
Felipe Dana/AP Photo
In this Dec. 23, 2015 photo, Dejailson Arruda holds his daughter Luiza at their house in Santa Cruz do Capibaribe, Pernambuco state, Brazil. Luiza was born in October with a rare condition, known as microcephaly. Luiza's mother Angelica Pereira was infected with the Zika virus after a mosquito bite. Brazilian health authorities are convinced that Luiza's condition is related to the Zika virus that infected her mother during pregnancy.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — In the early weeks of Angelica Pereira's pregnancy, a mosquito bite began bothering her. At first it seemed a small thing. But the next day she awoke with a rash, a headache, a fever and a burning in her eyes. The symptoms disappeared within four days, but she fears the virus has left lasting consequences.
Pereira's daughter Luiza was born in October with a head more than an inch (3 centimeters) below the range defined as healthy by doctors, a rare condition known as microcephaly that often results in mental retardation. A neurologist soon gave Pereira and her husband more bad news: The brain damage had caused cerebral palsy.
"My heart stopped. All I kept thinking about was all the struggles and discrimination my baby will suffer," said Pereira, a 20-year-old seamstress who lives in Santa Cruz do Capibaribe, a small, garment-manufacturing city in northeast Brazil.
More than 2,700 babies have been born in Brazil with microcephaly this year, up from fewer than 150 in 2014. Brazil's health officials say they're convinced the jump is linked to a sudden outbreak of the Zika virus that infected Pereira, though international experts caution it's far too early to be sure and note the condition can have many other causes.
Brazil alone estimates it's already had between 440,000 and 1.3 million cases of Zika since the first local transmission of the virus was detected in May. The mosquito-borne disease was first identified in the Americas less than two years ago and has spread rapidly across South and Central America.
Felipe Dana/AP
In this Dec. 22, 2015 photo, Angelica Pereira applies perfume on Luiza as her father Dejailson Arruda holds her at their house in Santa Cruz do Capibaribe, Pernambuco state, Brazil.
"We are looking at the beginning of an epidemic in a country that has in between 200,000 and 300,000 births per year, which shows how worried we are. It's a virus we don't know that much about," said Rodrigo Stabeli, vice president of the Rio de Janeiro-based Fiocruz research institute. "We are preparing for the unknown."
Brazilians are so concerned that some obstetricians, such as Helga Monaco at Sao Paulo's Samaritano Hospital, recommend women avoid becoming pregnant during the rainy season when mosquitoes are most prevalent.
"All the women I see at the hospital or in my office who are pregnant or wanting to get pregnant are very alarmed, almost panicky," she said.
The Zika virus, first detected in humans about 40 years ago in Uganda, has long seen as a less-painful cousin to dengue and chikunguya, which are spread by the same Aedes mosquito. Until a few months ago, investigators had no reported evidence it might be related to microcephaly.
Suspicion arose after officials recorded 17 cases of central nervous system malformations among fetuses and newborns after a Zika outbreak began last year in French Polynesia, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
And in November, Brazilian researchers reported the Zika virus genome had been found in amniotic fluid samples from two women whose fetuses were been diagnosed with microcephaly by ultrasound exams. Brazil announced on Nov. 28 that researchers had found the Zika virus present in brain tissue of a newborn with microcephaly who died.
As more evidence arose from further Brazilian tests, PAHO and the World Health Organization recently urged officials in the Americas to watch for possible neurological problems or congenital malformations elsewhere related to cases of Zika.
Felipe Dana/AP
In this Dec. 23, 2015 photo, 10-year-old Elison nurses his 2-month-old brother Jose Wesley at their house in Poco Fundo, Pernambuco state, Brazil. Suspicion of the link between microcephaly and the Zika virus arose after officials recorded 17 cases of central nervous system malformations among fetuses and newborns after a Zika outbreak began last year in French Polynesia, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
While there's never before been a detected link between the virus and microcephaly, "there has never been an epidemic of Zika in the proportions that we are looking at now in Brazil," said Pedro Fernando Vasconcelos, a researcher at Evandro Chagas Institute who found the virus in the newborn child.
International health officials say the link isn't yet proven. A recent message from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said "the association of Zika virus infection and microcephaly and is still under investigation" and added, "It will take time to determine the cause of the microcephaly for the cases being reported in Brazil." It noted there are numerous causes of microcephaly, including genetic abnormalities, infections or exposure to toxic substances during pregnancy.
"One shouldn't just jump to the conclusion that just because it's associated, it is causing it," said Sanjaya Senanayake, an associate professor of infectious diseases at the Australian National University who has studied the virus for decades.
"At the end of the day, it certainly could cause it," he said. "But they need to run more epidemiology studies looking at various groups of pregnant women."
Brazilian officials aren't waiting. Claudio Maierovitch, the director of Brazil's equivalent of the CDC, told a news conference on Tuesday "there is no doubt that the majority of the microcephaly cases (in Brazil) are related to the Zika virus." The Health Ministry announced it would send an army of 266,000 people to inspect every house, farm and business in the country and warn about the risks of Zika.
There are no known cases of infection by the Zika virus in the United States, though it has been seen in returning travelers. Chile, Colombia, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Suriname and Venezuela have reported cases of Zika, but have found no indication of corresponding birth defects, according to the Pan American Health Organization.
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Associated Press journalists Renata Brito in Rio de Janeiro, Stan Lehman in Sao Paulo and Marcos Aleman in San Salvador, El Salvador, contributed to this report.
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Adriana Gomez Licon is on Twitter http://twitter.com/agomezlicon
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Natural Mosquito Bite Treatment
Natural Mosquito Bite Treatment
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Honey
Since this natural sweetener is known for a wide range of health benefits, including its anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties, it's not surprising that honey can also ease itchy bites. It's included in a number of natural lotions and balms for this exact reason, Everyday Health explains.
Schultz recommends opting for raw honey and only dabbing a little bit right on the bite.
Since this natural sweetener is known for a wide range of health benefits, including its anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties, it's not surprising that honey can also ease itchy bites. It's included in a number of natural lotions and balms for this exact reason, Everyday Health explains.
Schultz recommends opting for raw honey and only dabbing a little bit right on the bite.
A shock of cold therapy will provide relief for itching and keep you from swelling more, says Schultz. "Ice actually numbs the nerves that conduct itching and pain so you don't feel either," he says.
You may have heard that going the other direction in temperature can also help. Hot water would in fact have the same effect on the nerves, says Schultz, but after you remove your warm compress or step out of that hot shower, you'll face a "rebound release of histamine that makes the itching worse," he says.
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Essential Oils
"Tea tree oil is one of my favorite essential oils in all of dermatology," says Schultz. It acts as an anti-inflammatory, so it can combat itching, swelling and pain, and it seems to also have anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties that can help prevent infection at the site of the bite, he explains.
Lavender oil can also help. "Lavender is the most versatile of all the essential oiils, with more benefits than you can shake a stick at," says Schultz. A dab on the skin can help reduce inflammation and pain and prevent infections, he says.
This "way-underutilized" home remedy can help stop itching due to its acidity, says Schultz. He recommends diluting two or three cups in a bathtub of warm water to treat all-over bites, or putting a few drops on cotton and wiping an individual bite. Apple cider vinegar may be an even better bet, he adds, since it's slightly less acidic, and it's likely that the pH of itchy, red skin is off balance to begin with, he says.
Just like (cooled!) tea bags can reduce under-eye puffiness, they can ease swelling on bites, too, says Schultz. The tannins in tea act as an astringent, he says, drawing extra fluid out of the bite.
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Baking Soda
"Sodium bicarbonate is a mild alkaline compound that can help neutralize the pH balance of your skin," Dr. Linda K. Franks told Prevention. "This 'buffering effect' may help quell the inflammation that occurs at the skin's surface, easing your soreness."
Try dissolving some into a warm bath and soaking for 30 minutes, or mixing some with a little water to create a paste to apply directly to the bitten skin.
Baking soda can also work in conjunction with other remedies, says Schultz, like this plant-based astringent that, when applied in a paste with baking soda, will draw fluid out and reduce swelling at the bite. "There's a synergy, they work even better together," he says.
The aromatic leaf naturally contains camphor and thymol, two compounds that can relieve itching, says Schultz. It's easy to crush some up and apply it to bites, or buy the essential oil and dab onto the skin.
Both citrus fruits are anti-itch, anti-bacterial and anti-microbial, according to Schultz. The juice or the peel can "kill all sorts of bacteria" he says.
There is one downside, though. Just the way you used to squeeze lemon juice into your hair for beachy highlights, the oils will also react with the sun on your skin. "You'll get a blistering reaction," Schultz says. Stay safe by only using citrus-based remedies indoors.
You may have heard that a dab of toothpaste can ease the itch, but it might be that minty-fresh flavoring that's at work.
"It causes a cooling sensation, [which] gets to the brain faster than the itching," Schultz says. Because the brain can only process one sensation at a time, cooling agents are often added to skin products to act as "counter-irritants" he says, which prevent and block other sensations, like itching. If you don't want to slather the chemicals in your toothpaste on your bites, try a drop of the essential oil or a paste made from crushed leaves.
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Banana Peel
While some people swear by this home remedy, there (perhaps unsurprisingly) isn't a whole lot of credible research to back it up. Schultz hypothesizes that the sugars in the chemical makeup of the skin of a banana could be soothing and draw fluid out from a bite.
For a soothing compress, Schultz recommends soaking equal parts milk and water into a handkerchief and applying it to the skin. "It's very soothing and helpful at relieving itching, swelling and inflammation," he says, "plus it's also a great technique for relieving sunburn." Skim works the best, he adds, as it's the protein and not the fat in milk that soothes the skin.
It sounds silly, but it works! "Slapping is a greater form of pain than itching," explains Schultz. "It's more startling, but it's not annoying the way itching is." The brain can only register one feeling at a time, he says, so you may get some relief from the itchiness when the pain of a slap takes over, even if you might feel strange inflicting that pain on yourself.
Squeezing the bite gently but firmly is another option (which may feel less 'out there'). These methods can ease all itchy bumps, adds Schultz, not just mosquito bites.
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Aloe
While it's primarily thought of as sunburn relief, aloe shouldn't be ignored in treating bites, says Schultz. "It's very good for itching and swelling and really is very soothing."