Zika infection during pregnancy may cause limb joint deformities in the baby, experts now fear.
Brazilian researchers from Recife, the city at the centre of the Zika epidemic, describe seven suspect cases in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
The virus, which has been spreading across much of the Americas and has deterred some people from visiting the Olympic host country, is already known to cause a serious baby brain defect.
Experts now agree that Zika is capable of causing lasting brain damage to babies in the womb. The virus can cross the placenta from the mother to her unborn child.
And there is growing evidence that it can trigger a rare, weakening condition of the nerves, called Guillian-Barre syndrome, in adults.
Dr Vanessa van der Linden and her team in Brazil say they are now seeing limb joint problems in newborn babies that might be caused by Zika too.
The seven babies with suspected Zika infection that they studied in hospital had been born with hip, knee, ankle, elbow, wrist and/or finger joint problems that fit with a medical diagnosis called arthrogryposis.
The deformities of arthrogryposis, or crooked joints, are caused by faulty muscles – some too tight or contracted and some too flaccid – that have pulled and held the baby’s growing body in unnatural positions.
For more information: Congenital Zika syndrome with arthrogryposis: retrospective case series study
