Zika: Virus linked to microcephaly found in baby's brains

The World Health Organisation has delcared Zika a public health emergency

A mother holds her daughter who was born with microcephaly (EPA/ANTONIO LACERDA)

Zika has been found in babies with a form of brain damage known as microcephaly, in the latest piece of evidence which suggests a link between the virus and the condition which makes heads appear shrunken.

Brazilian scientists have found the virus active in the brains of two babies who died 48 hours after being born, BBC News reported.

The World Health Organisation recently declared a global emergency over Zika, due to suspected connections between the otherwise relatively mild fever and newborns with microcephaly in Central and South American countries.

Researchers are now racing to confirm the link, as well as find a vaccine and cure for Zika.

In Brazil, the worst affected nation, around 460 cases of microcephaly have been recorded among a further 3,850 suspected cases since late 2015.

The scientists at the PUC-Parana University made their findings after monitoring the pregnancies of 10 women in the north-eastern state of Paraiba.

"We have detected its presence in the brain tissue," Lucia Noronha, a pathologist from the Brazilian Society of Pathology and who is part of the team at the PUC-Parana University, told AFP.

"The Zika virus caused brain damage and that reinforces evidence of a relationship between Zika and microcephaly," she said.

The findings come after Argentinian doctors sparked controversy by claiming that larvicide used in drinking water which targets the Zika-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquito had caused microcephaly.

Brazilian health officials dismissed the claims that pyriproxyfen was behind the spike in microcephaly, after one state stopped using the chemical in light of the report, according to The Telegraph.

“It’s important to state that some localities that do not use pyriproxyfen also had reported cases of microcephaly,” the government said in a statement.