兹卡病毒或可增加精神疾病风险_时事

兹卡病毒或可增加精神疾病风险

Although the virus was discovered in 1947, there has been no research into its long-term consequences. Scientists are left to draw inferences from what is known of similar infections.

尽管这种病毒是在1947年发现的，但其长期后果并没有得到过研究。科学家只能借助其他相似传染病的已知情况来进行推论。

In interviews, psychiatric researchers specializing in fetal development agreed with Dr. Lipkin’s pessimistic prognosis.

在采访中，专门研究胎儿发育的精神病学研究人员认同了李普金的悲观预测。

A viral attack early in pregnancy can kill a fetus or stunt the growing brain, producing microcephaly, they explained. An infection later in the fetus’s development, when the brain is nearly fully formed, can do damage that is less obvious but still significant.

他们解释道，妊娠早期受到病毒感染，可能会扼杀胚胎或抑制生长中的大脑，从而导致小头畸形。如果在胚胎发育后期，大脑几乎完全形成时感染，可能会造成没那么明显但仍然很严重的损害。

“It is pretty scary,” said Dr. Urs Meyer, a behavioral neurobiologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich who studies the consequences of fetal infections in lab animals. “These problems are on a continuous scale, and whether you end up with autism or schizophrenia is complex — and we really can’t predict it.”