Dengue virus infection may cause severe outcomes following Zika virus infection during pregnancy

Prior Dengue virus infection may cause severe outcomes following Zika virus infection during pregnancy, Mount Sinai study shows Women who have previously been infected with dengue virus may be at risk for increased damage to their fetuses and placentas if they should later become infected with the Zika virus, researchers from the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai report. This study is the first to report a possible mechanism for the enhancement of Zika virus progression during pregnancy in an animal model. Results of the study, “Dengue virus immunity increases Zika virus-induced damage during pregnancy,” were published in the February issue of Immunity, a journal published by Cell Press. Zika virus outbreaks were first found to be associated with birth defects including microcephaly, in which the baby is born with an abnormally small head and brain, in 2015 in Brazil, where dengue virus, a virus closely related to Zika...