Study says Zika virus can be linked to brain infection in adult

Wth the Rio Olympics drawing near, this is definitely not good news as French scientists have warned that the Zika virus can cause serious brain infections in adults. The mosquito-borne virus has already been linked to brain damage in babies, largely through a birth defect call microcephaly. Babies with the condition have abnormally small heads, and underdeveloped brains. But until now, no effects on adult brains had been associated with the fast-spreading virus. However, researchers revealed Zika has been found to cause adults to develop a brain infection called meningoencephalitis. The infection involves inflammation of the brain and the tissue that covers the brain.
The discovery was made after the Zika virus was found in the spinal fluid of an 81-year-old man. The patient had been admitted to a Paris hospital shortly after returning from a month-long cruise - at which point he was semi-comatose, with a high fever and partial paralysis. Dr Guillaume Carteaux, of the Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris, told AFP: 'It is the first case of its kind to be reported, to our knowledge.'
The mere presence of Zika in the man's system doesn't prove that the virus causes the infection. Yet, Dr Carteaux said that 'other infectious causes, either viral or bacterial, have been ruled out.'
The team of researchers wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine that the man had been in good health before his four-week cruise, which made stops in New Zealand, New Caledonia, Vanuato and the Solomon Islands. Of the cruise stops, only New Caledonia is on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) list of places with Zika outbreaks. The country was added on Wednesday to the CDC's Zika travel advisory - which has more than 30 destinations, mostly in Latin America or the Caribbean. The researchers wrote: 'Clinicians should be aware that [Zika virus] may be associated with meningoencephalitis.'
Just one day before the report was published, another team of French researchers linked Zika to myelitis, an inflammation of the spinal cord. Myelitis affects limb movement and causes paralysis by blocking communication between the spinal cord and body.
A 15-year-old girl had been diagnosed with acute myelitis in January on the French Caribbean island of Guadaloupe. She was found to have high levels of Zika in her cerebrospinal fluid, urine and blood.
There is currently no treatment or vaccine for the Zika virus.