It was in early December that authorities in Brazil sounded the alarm about the unusually high number of children with microcephaly born in the country. It is a birth defect in which the child is born with a very small head, which is often followed by severe handicap.
The cases are associated with zikaviruset, a relatively unknown virus that was reported outside Africa and Asia for the first time in 2007.
The virus can cause zikafeber. Most people have mild symptoms or none at all, but after finding the virus in the amniotic fluid of children who later were born with microcephaly, scientists believe there is a connection.
During the last year, reported 3530 cases of microcephaly in Brazil , compared with 150 to 200 cases normally.
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