Gestational outcomes in women infected by Zika virus during pregnancy in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

This study aimed to describe the demographic and clinical parameters of women infected by Zika virus who had infants with stigmata of Congenital Zika Syndrome (CZS) versus those who had normal-appearing infants at birth, thereby providing further details on the clinical caveats of neonatal ZIKV infection. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was performed in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Central-West region of Brazil, and included 117 mother-infant pairs who were interviewed and 120 gestational outcomes. All mothers had laboratory confirmation by qRT-PCR of ZIKV infection during pregnancy. Results: The prevalence of congenital abnormalities related to ZIKV was 2.69 cases per 10,000 live births during this period. Exanthem was the main clinical finding, observed in 92.5% of the mothers in this study. Regarding the timing of ZIKV infection, the first trimester was the most frequent time of infection among mothers of infants with CZS (54.55%) (p = 0.0007). The case fatality rate was 5% (n = 6). Among the 23 children who were classified as having CZS, 13 (56.52%) of them presented with microcephaly. Only 13 (56.52%) children with CZS were tested by qRT-PCR for ZIKV infection at birth, five (38%) were positive. Conclusions: This study highlights the congenital alterations of ZIKV infection during pregnancy in an epidemic burst, demonstrating that the alterations found in other studies are similar to the present research.