A new study published in Radiology indicates that Zika strikes brain development early on, leading to grey- and white-matter loss, fluid buildup, brain stem issues, and other developmental problems besides microcephaly.
Researchers scanned the brains of 45 Brazilian babies born from Zika-infected mothers.
“It’s not just the small brain, it’s that there’s a lot more damage,” study author Dr. Deborah Levine, a professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School, told the New York Times. “The abnormalities that we see in the brain suggest a very early disruption of the brain development process.”