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12 images of raising a child with microcephaly in the wake of the Zika virus

Courtney Verrill   

12 images of raising a child with microcephaly in the wake of the Zika virus
LifeScience1 min read

Zika, Microcephaly

Ricardo Moraes/Reuters

Lucas, 4 months, does exercises with his physiotherapist at Brazil's first center for microcephaly.

Cases of microcephaly - a neurological disorder that may be linked to the untreatable Zika virus - have grown rapidly in Brazil in the past year. There have been over 4,400 reported cases in Brazil since October. (Of those, only about 500 have been confirmed thus far, with many more cases still being investigated).

Microcephaly is a condition where a baby's head is smaller than the typical size - about 33 cm - of a newborn. This means that the baby's brain is underdeveloped, which can cause many different issues, such as severe developmental problems, frequent seizures, and psychomotor impairment.

Caring for a child with microcephaly can be difficult. They require many doctor's appointments, physical therapy, and other treatments.

Here's what it's like to care for and treat a newborn with microcephaly.

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