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Objective: to describe the temporal and spatial distribution of reported and confirmed cases of congenital Zika virus syndrome (CZS) in live births in Brazil during 2015-2016., Methods: we conducted a descriptive study with data from the Public Health Events Registry, including cases born in 2015 or 2016, and registered between epidemiological week 45/2015 and 2/2017., Results: we analyzed 9.953 reported cases, of which 2.018 (20.3%) were confirmed and 2.819 (28.3%) were still under investigation at the epidemiological week 2/2017; 404 (4.1%) out of the 9.953 cases had laboratory confirmation for Zika virus; the prevalence of confirmed cases of CZS was 3.8/10 thousand livebirths in 2015 and 3.1/10 thousand live births in 2016., Conclusion: one fifth of the cases reported in 2015-16 were confirmed the CZS, reinforcing their relevance as a public health problem; efforts aimed at the diagnostic confirmation of the syndrome should be prioritized.

Background: In November, 2015, an epidemic of microcephaly was reported in Brazil, which was later attributed to congenital Zika virus infection. 7830 suspected cases had been reported to the Brazilian Ministry of Health by June 4, 2016, but little is known about their characteristics. We aimed to describe these newborn babies in terms of clinical findings, anthropometry, and survival., Methods: We reviewed all 1501 liveborn infants for whom investigation by medical teams at State level had been completed as of Feb 27, 2016, and classified suspected cases into five categories based on neuroimaging and laboratory results for Zika virus and other relevant infections. Definite cases had laboratory evidence of Zika virus infection; highly probable cases presented specific neuroimaging findings, and negative laboratory results for other congenital infections; moderately probable cases had specific imaging findings but other infections could not be ruled out; somewhat probable cases had imaging findings, but these were not reported in detail by the local teams; all other newborn babies were classified as discarded cases. Head circumference by gestational age was assessed with InterGrowth standards. First week mortality and history of rash were provided by the State medical teams., Findings: Between Nov 19, 2015, and Feb 27, 2015, investigations were completed for 1501 suspected cases reported to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, of whom 899 were discarded. Of the remainder 602 cases, 76 were definite, 54 highly probable, 181 moderately probable, and 291 somewhat probable of congenital Zika virus syndrome. Clinical, anthropometric, and survival differences were small among the four groups. Compared with these four groups, the 899 discarded cases had larger head circumferences (mean Z scores -1·54 vs -3·13, difference 1·58 [95% CI 1·45-1·72]); lower first-week mortality (14 per 1000 vs 51 per 1000; rate ratio 0·28 [95% CI 0·14-0·56]); and were less likely to have a history of rash during pregnancy (20·7% vs 61·4%, ratio 0·34 [95% CI 0·27-0·42]). Rashes in the third trimester of pregnancy were associated with brain abnormalities despite normal sized heads. One in five definite or probable cases presented head circumferences in the normal range (above -2 SD below the median of the InterGrowth standard) and for one third of definite and probable cases there was no history of a rash during pregnancy. The peak of the epidemic occurred in late November, 2015., Interpretation: Zika virus congenital syndrome is a new teratogenic disease. Because many definite or probable cases present normal head circumference values and their mothers do not report having a rash, screening criteria must be revised in order to detect all affected newborn babies., Funding: Brazilian Ministry of Health, Pan American Health Organization, and Wellcome Trust., (Copyright © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY license. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)