A New England Journal of Medicine study found pregnant women infected with the Zika virus in their third trimester may still give birth to infants without microcephaly, The Wall Street Journal reports.
University of Colombia researchers examined 65,726 Zika cases in both Colombian men and women from August 2015 to April 2016. Of those cases, 11,944 were pregnant women.
Here are five points:
1. Of the 616 women in Colombia diagnosed with Zika during their third trimester, none of the babies were born with microcephaly or any other brain abnormalities.
2. Eighty-two percent of the babies were born at term and weighed normally.
3. The researchers will monitor the babies born without microcephaly or other brain abnormalities for other potential problems, such as eye or hearing problems and developmental delays.
4. All the women in the study showed Zika symptoms, but lab tests did not diagnose all the women with Zika.
5. A separate New England Journal of Medicine study examining French Polynesian women during their 2013 to 2014 Zika outbreak found women infected during their first trimester faced a 1 percent risk of their babies developing microcephaly.
