Five years after the identification of Zika virus as a human teratogen, we reviewed the early clinical manifestations, collectively called congenital Zika syndrome (CZS). Children with CZS have a very poor prognosis with extremely low performance in motor, cognitive, and language development domains, and practically all feature severe forms of cerebral palsy. However, these manifestations are the tip of the iceberg, with some children presenting milder forms of deficits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSARS-CoV-2 virus was first identified in the beginning of 2020 and has spread all over the world, causing the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The virus is a member of the Coronavirus family, which includes viruses that cause common cold, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). MERS and SARS are known by causing adverse events in pregnancy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is a disorder caused by alterations in embryo-fetal development due to prenatal alcohol exposure. It is estimated that between 0.5 and 2 per 1,000 individuals are born with FAS every year.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn 1990, the first Teratogen Information Service in Brazil (SIAT) was implemented in the Medical Genetics Service at Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre. SIAT is a free-to-use information service both to health professionals and the general population, especially to women who are pregnant or planning pregnancy. The main objective of this paper is to present the activities of SIAT in its initial years (1990-2006), compared to those in the last decade (2007-2017).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrenatal alcohol exposure can have serious and permanent adverse effects. The developing brain is the most vulnerable organ to the insults of prenatal alcohol exposure. A behavioral phenotype of prenatal alcohol exposure including conduct disorders is also described.
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