Lab study supports linking Zika virus to brain birth defect

NEW YORK (AP) — A lab study has found that Zika can infect embryonic cells that help form the brain, adding to evidence that the virus causes a serious birth defect.
The mosquito-borne virus is spreading in Latin America and the Caribbean. Scientists are alarmed by indications that when it infects a pregnant woman, her baby may be born with a small head and a brain that hasn’t developed properly.
Previous studies have found Zika virus in the brains of babies with the defect who had d