In:

The Lancet

Authors:

Didier Musso, David Baud

Until the French Polynesian outbreak in 2013–14, Zika virus disease was thought to be only a mild disease. During this outbreak, the incidence of Guillain-Barré syndrome was 20 times higher than expected.1 Similarly, the emergence of Zika virus in the Americas since 2015 has been associated with a dramatic increase of reported cases of microcephaly.2 As for Zika virus and Guillain-Barré syndrome in French Polynesia, the temporal association between Zika virus outbreaks and microcephaly in Brazil strongly suggests that Zika virus infection during pregnancy might cause severe neurological damage in neonates. The challenge now is to provide empirical evidence for the link between Zika virus and microcephaly, and the demonstration that Zika virus can cross the placental barrier and infect the neonate strongly favours this association.

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