Introduction

After the outbreak of congenital Zika syndrome (SCZ) in  Brazil (2015/2016), healthcare professionals were  faced with a population of children with microcephalic and  many neurological manifestations. However there are no published follow-up studies reporting the neurodevelopment in children with SCZ.

Methods

A case series study was conducted between January and August 2017. 24 children  were close to completing the second year of life and are presented in this study.

Results

Almost all children (23/24) had recurrent episodes of convulsion.

Neurologic evaluation showed that all children presented impairment of neuropsychomotor development; none stood with support, walked or were able to say a word. The mean age of the clinical examination was 19.9 months and equivalent age for language, gross motor, fine motor/adaptative and personal/social were respectively: 2.1 months, 2.7 months, 3.1 months and 3.4 months.

Discussion

A severe impairment of the neuropsychomotor development of children with SCZ was observed.

Congenital microcephaly regardless of cause presents a significant risk for delay across all aspects of development and for long term disability. Serious development delay was found in all 24 studied children with SCZ around 2 years of age. Our report is a pioneer study describing the development during the first two years of life of children born with microcephaly associated with Zika virus.

Conclusion

Children born with microcephaly associated with congenital Zika virus had a significant delay in neurodevelopment.