The Zika Virus and Why it Matters for Mothers and Infants
The Zika virus has made nearly as many headlines lately as Donald Trump, with health authorities in the United States issuing travel warnings for its citizens and officials in Central and South American countries warning prospective parents to delay planned childbirth for two years, due to the risk of microcephaly. As I've read the coverage, however, I've noticed that very few sources discuss the impact of microcephaly, or even define what it is. In my work as a pediatric physical therapist, I've come across children with microcephaly due to other causes: genetic disorders, injury, or birth defect, and can attest to the significance of the effects of this disorder.
Put simply, microcephaly means "small head." Typically developing children fall somewhere on a spectrum of head size--most fall within a well-charted range. Those that fall below the bottom of this range are said to have microcephaly.
Being exceedingly small for one's age (as an infant) carries with it the same risks as being premature (though, to be sure, many premature infants develop just fine...it's that the risk of problems is higher). Being small, or small for gestational age (SGA) as it's officially called, means that structures within the body have not been allowed to develop properly or fully. If this restricted development occurs throughout the body it can lead to a whole host of problems: lung issues, heart issues, even brain damage. When the restriction affects the head (and therefore brain) alone, the result is typically a child with cognitive disability and, sometimes, greater risk for seizures.
As a mother (and one who delayed have children until her late 30s), my heart goes out to parents who now face such a choice: risking the effects of Zika or delaying their plans for a family for two years. While two years passes lightning fast, two years also passes lightning fast for a woman near the end of her childbearing years.
It makes me think of a funny moment in The Art of Happiness. The interviewer is talking to the Dalai Lama and the Dalai Lama is killing mosquitoes buzzing around them. The interviewer, understandably, is surprised and asks the Dalai Lama why, as a Buddhist, he is killing them. The DL answers, basically, that he's put some thought into it, and he can't think of one reason to like mosquitoes. It seems we have yet another reason to dislike them now.