Microcephaly caused by Zika virus and viral detection in maternal urine

Dear Editor

We read the publication on “Microcephaly caused by congenital Zika virus infection and viral detection in maternal urine during pregnancy” with great interest ¹. It reported “a case of virus infection in a 25-year-old woman during the first trimester of her pregnancy, confirmed by laboratory tests only for the detection of viral particles in maternal urine, with imaging studies demonstrating the progression of cranial and encephalic changes in the foetus and later in the new-born, such as head circumference reduction, cerebral calcifications and ventriculomegaly.” In fact, this report is a classical finding of Zika virus disease. The infection is usually asymptomatic and the detection of the virus in the body secretion including to urine is possible ². According to this report, we might conclude that there are co-incidence of detection of Zika virus in maternal urine and there is an abnormal infant with microcephaly. However, the interesting concern is whether we can assume that finding of Zika virus in maternal urine in asymptomatic pregnant mother has any clinical predictive clue for congenital microcephaly in infant. As mentioned, asymptomatic Zika virus infected mothers are common and not all asymptomatic infected mothers give birth to abnormal child. In our country, in tropical Asia, there has never been any abnormal child born to asymptomatic Zika virus infected pregnant women³.

REFERENCES

• ¹
  Regadas VC, Silva MCE, Abud LG, Labadessa LMPL, Oliveira RGG, Miyake CH, et al. Microcephaly caused by congenital Zika virus infection and viral detection in maternal urine during pregnancy. Rev Assoc Med Bras. 2018;64(1):11-4.
• ²
  Wiwanitkit S, Wiwanitkit V. Afebrile, asymptomatic and non-thrombocytopenic Zika virus infection: don't miss it! Asian Pac J Trop Med. 2016;9(5):513.
• ³
  Joob B, Wiwanitkit V. Congenital Zika virus infection: the tropical Asian perspective. Clin Neurophysiol. 2017;128(2):289.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  Dec 2018

History

• Received
  23 Mar 2018
• Accepted
  23 Mar 2018