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Cockayne syndrome (CS) is a hereditary disease that is inherited in an autosomal recessive manner. The disease occurs only rarely. The course of the disease is progressive and affected individuals have a severely shortened life expectancy. On average, they die at the age of 12. The disease is divided into three types, which differ in the onset of the disease and the severity of symptoms. Microcephaly, impaired weight gain, and decreased growth are typical of CS. Other symptoms include hearing loss, cataracts, neurological abnormalities, photosensitivity, and muscle weakness. Affected children often initially acquire certain skills, such as walking and speaking simple sentences, but lose these skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Zika virus and the effort to prevent it from spreading in the U.S. Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that is suspected to be linked with microcephaly. It explores the use of chemical strategies to avoid mosquitoes carrying Zika virus, such as treating water with larvicides to control mosquitoes before they mature. The spread of the Zika virus in Brazil is also discussed.

The article discusses drug maker Sanofi is shutting down development of its Zika vaccine after citing reduced funding from the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research & Development Authority (BARDA). It mentions the Zika was declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organization in 2016 after several Brazilian women infected during a spring 2015 outbreak gave birth to infants with microcephaly.

The article reports on the study published in the May 2016 issue of the "JAMA Ophthalmology" journal on infants with Zika virus. The study reportedly involved infants with microcephaly and presumed Zika virus who were born between May and December 2015 in Brazil. The results revealed that infants born with Zika virus may have abnormalities in their eyes.

The article focuses on a study on link between mutation in Zika virus protein and microcephaly. Topics discussed include increase in infants with underdeveloped heads and brains born to pregnant women who were infected with the virus, finding mutation of a single amino acid in one of the Zika virus's structural proteins, and causing microcephaly by enabling the virus to kill developing brain cells by Zika virus.

The article focuses on the replication of Zika virius cells that relies on a protein called Musashi 1 found in fetal neural stem for faster growth and mentions the need of this protein to cross the placental barrier and cause microcephaly in babies.

The author reflects on the apparent scientific inexactitudes that link Zika virus with microcephaly. Topics discussed include examples of efforts by the Brazilian government designed to give the impression of an epidemic, the World Health Organization's (WHO) pronouncements on health issues having the status of international imperatives, and explanations implicating the use of agricultural herbicides and some theories linking microcephaly to Zika virus.

The article reports that Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Villages, an Argentinian physicians group, blamed larvicide as the cause of an outbreak of microcephaly in infants in Brazil rather than Zika virus. Topics include the use of pyriproxyfen in treating drinking water and their potential health effect, the statement of Brazil's Ministry of Health on the lack of evidence about the association between pyriproxyfen and microcephaly, and the possibility that unknown agent is causing microcephaly.