Zika Virus Infection: New Findings Related to Neurological Complications

Zika virus infection has attracted attention of the world population, being reported in many countries / territories. The Zika virus (ZIKV; genus Flavivirus, family Flaviviridae) is a pathogen globally transmitted by emerging mosquitoes (arboviruses) of the genus Aedes spp. Recently in Brazil, the Ministry of Health confirmed the association between ZIKV and microcephaly outbreak in the Northeast, however, is not clear in the studies the pathogenesis of this process, which led us to conduct a review in databases Pubmed, Medline and Lilacs. The literature reports that the clinical manifestations of ZIKV infection are very similar to infections such as dengue and chikungunya, but usually milder and without deaths, however, the absence of specific commercial serological tests for ZIKV, makes infection a clinical challenge in diagnosis. The association of ZIKV with microcephaly is initially related to the first three months of pregnancy and leads to neurological complications that when does not result in death, causes severe functional limitations accompanied by changes in neuropsychomotor development. Because of the increased number of cases of microcephaly associated with ZIKV infection reported in Brazil, further discussions should be carried out.