For the first time, doctors have tied infection with the
Zika virus to possible new heart problems in adults. Eight of the nine developed a dangerous heart rhythm problem, and six of the nine developed heart failure, which occurs when a weakened heart can't pump enough blood. After a big outbreak in Brazil in 2015, Zika spread throughout Latin America, the Caribbean and elsewhere. She studied nine patients, ages 30 to 64, treated at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Caracas who developed heart symptoms such as palpitations, shortness of breath and fatigue an average of 10 days after typical Zika symptoms began. The virus also spread locally in parts of southern Florida and Texas last year.
But unlike the dengue patients, many of the
Zika patients developed serious problems from their infections. Two travellers developed the neurological disorder Guillain–Barré Syndrome, or GBS-like syndrome, a condition that has been linked Zika virus by previous research. Ten per cent of the 41 patients with Zika developed severe complications. Referral bias could have played a role in the high incidence of severe complications, the study authors note. Among the other travellers with Zika infections, 88 per cent developed a rash and 80 per cent had fever.
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