The study, titled “Maternal Zika virus exposure and neurodevelopmental outcomes: A longitudinal study of preschool children in the ZIKAlliance Colombian Cohort,” was published on April 13, 2026, in the journal PLoS One.
The research was led by an interdisciplinary team from the Industrial University of Santander (UIS), including researchers Víctor Herrera, María Consuelo Miranda, Anyela Lozano Parra, Diana Niño, Claudia Acevedo, and Jürg Niederbacher, affiliated with the Clinical Epidemiology Group of the School of Medicine and the Pediatrics Research Group (PAIDÓS) of the Department of Pediatrics.
The primary objective of this study was to evaluate whether prenatal exposure to the Zika virus (ZIKV) influenced the neurodevelopment of preschool-aged children. To this end, a longitudinal cohort study was conducted in Bucaramanga that evaluated 153 preschool-aged children (with an average age of 4.7 years) who were normocephalic at birth using the Denver II Test (DDST-II) and the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3).
The results of the analysis showed that in utero exposure to ZIKV was not significantly associated with neurodevelopmental delays in this population of children. However, the study highlighted that attending community daycare centers or educational institutions constitutes an important protective factor, significantly reducing the risk of developmental delays compared to children who remain at home in the care of family members.
The study was made possible thanks to the international collaboration of the ZIKAlliance consortium, funded by the European Union, and received support from the Vice-Rectorate for Research and Extension (VIE) at the UIS.
