"Another theory Diamond and Fremont want to explore is whether pre-existing immunity to dengue in South America may make Zika infections more severe and account for birth defects and other complications. It’s possible that antibodies against dengue can cross-react with Zika and make Zika infections worse, although there’s no data yet to support this idea.
"However, it is known that a prior infection with dengue puts people at risk of more severe disease if they are infected a second time with a slightly different subtype of the virus. "“In dengue, if you’re infected with one serotype of the virus and later you’re infected with another serotype, you can get worse disease because there is cross-reactivity – something we call antibody-dependent enhancement,” Diamond explained. “The question is, for people infected with dengue, can their antibodies cross-react and make Zika worse? And alternatively, does Zika make dengue worse? This is not the major issue now, but as the epidemic spreads, Zika could impact dengue. We don’t know yet, but these are fundamental basic questions that we want to answer.” "Dengue is estimated to be responsible for 390 million infections annually across the globe, according to the World Health Organization. In South America, 90 percent of people are infected with dengue by age 12, compared with a much smaller percentage of people in Africa, where dengue infections are more sporadic. Researchers have not seen similar complications from Zika infections in Africa. "The researchers also acknowledge that microcephaly and Guillian-Barré may not be related to Zika virus at all. But the mouse models and other tools they have developed provide an opportunity to explore critical questions about the virus." https://medicine.wustl.edu/news/scientists-team-up-to-fight-zika/ On Fri, Mar 4, 2016 at 4:29 PM, Dan Nave <[email protected]> wrote: > < > http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-03-zika-virus-infects-human-neural.html > > >
