Claim: The most likely triggering cause of (microcephaly)" is the "DTaP shot, a vaccine that had been recently mandated by the Brazilian government to be injected into pregnant women.
Verdict: REFUTES

Retrieved passages:
title: Pyriproxyfen
text: where no evidence has been found of the cases being linked to any environmental cause like an insecticide. Neurologist Vanessa van der Linden stated in an interview, "Clinically, the changes we see in the scans of babies suggest that the injuries were caused by congenital infection and not by larvicide, drug or vaccine." Noted skeptic David Gorski called the claim a conspiracy theory and pointed out that antivaccine proponents had also claimed that the Tdap vaccine was the cause of the microcephaly outbreak, due to its introduction in 2014, along with adding, "One can’t help but wonder what else the

title: Zika fever
text: important to state that some localities that do not use pyriproxyfen also had reported cases of microcephaly", read a Brazilian government statement. The Brazilian government also refuted conspiracy theories that chickenpox and rubella vaccinations or genetically modified mosquitoes were causing increases in microcephaly. Researchers also suspected that Zika virus could be transmitted by a pregnant woman to her babies ("vertical transmission"). This remained unproven until February 2016, when a paper by Calvet et al. was published, showing not only was the Zika virus genome found in the amniotic fluid but also IgM antibodies against the virus. This means that not

title: Pyriproxyfen
text: (WHOPES) for larvicides. In January 2016, the Brazilian Association for Collective Health ("Abrasco"; ) criticized the introduction of pyriproxyfen in Brazil. Abrasco demanded the "immediate suspension of [use of] pyriproxyfen and all growth inhibitors ... in drinking water." The organization is opposed to the use of growth inhibitors in the context of an ongoing outbreak of fetal malformation. On February 3, the rumor that pyriproxyfen, not the Zika virus, is the cause of the 2015-2016 microcephaly outbreak in Brazil was raised in a report of the Argentinean organization Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Villages (PCST). It attracted wide media coverage. The

title: Pyriproxyfen
text: statement from Abrasco was cited in the PCST report; subsequently, Abrasco clarified that position as an misinterpretation of their statement, saying "at no time did we state that pesticides, insecticides, or other chemicals are responsible for the increasing number of microcephaly cases in Brazil". They also condemned the behavior of the websites that spread the misinformation, adding that such "untruths...violates the anguish and suffering of the people in vulnerable positions". In addition, the coordinator for the PCST statement, Medardo Ávila Vazquez, acknowledged in an interview that "the group hasn’t done any lab studies or epidemiological research to support its assertions,

title: Zika fever
text: 2016 that the Brazilian Ministry of Health had confirmed 134 cases of microcephaly "believed to be associated with Zika virus infection" with an additional 2,165 cases in 549 counties in 20 states remaining under investigation. An analysis of 574 cases of microcephaly in Brazil during 2015 and the first week of 2016, reported in March 2016, found an association with maternal illness involving rash and fever during the first trimester of pregnancy. During this period, 12 Brazilian states reported increases of at least 3 standard deviations (SDs) in cases of microcephaly compared with 2000–14, with the northeastern states of Bahia,

title: Celina Turchi
text: in pregnant women would have influence on the foetus' lack of cranial development. Celina Turchi Celina Maria Turchi Martelli is a Brazilian epidemiologist, graduated by Federal University of Goiás and researcher at Fundação Oswaldo Cruz in Recife. She first associated the link between zika virus and microcephaly in newborn babies during the 2015 disease outbreak in Brazil; she was listed by "Nature" magazine as one of the 10 most notable people in science in 2016, and by "Time" magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of 2017. Turchi was born in the state of Goiás. She did her

title: Zika fever
text: Paraíba and Pernambuco reporting increases of more than 20 SDs. In January 2016, a baby in Oahu, Hawaii, was born with microcephaly, the first case in the United States of brain damage linked to the virus. The baby and mother tested positive for a past Zika virus infection. The mother, who had probably acquired the virus while traveling in Brazil in May 2015 during the early stages of her pregnancy, had reported her bout of Zika. She recovered before relocating to Hawaii. Her pregnancy had progressed normally, and the baby's condition was not known until birth. In February 2016, ocular

title: Pertussis vaccine
text: contain reduced amounts of pertussis antigens compared to DTaP vaccines. Pearl Kendrick and Grace Eldering studied pertussis in the 1930s. They developed and ran the first large scale study of a successful vaccine for the disease. During the 1970s and 1980s, a controversy erupted related to the question of whether the whole-cell pertussis component caused permanent brain injury in rare cases, called pertussis vaccine encephalopathy. Despite this allegation, doctors recommended the vaccine due to the overwhelming public health benefit, because the claimed rate was very low (one case per 310,000 immunizations, or about 50 cases out of the 15 million

title: Pyriproxyfen
text: of pyriproxyfen by the World Health Organization since 2004 and the United States Environmental Protection Agency since 2001. George Dimech, the director of Disease Control and Diseases of the Health Department of Pernambuco in Brazil, gave an interview to the BBC where he pointed out that the city of Recife has the current highest reported amount of cases of microcephaly, yet pyriproxyfen is not used in the region, but another insecticide altogether. He added that "this lack of spatial correlation weakens the idea that the larvicide is the cause of the problem." In addition, the BBC interviewed researchers in Pernambuco,

title: Vaccine court
text: case brought to the vaccine court by the family of Hannah Poling, a girl who developed autistic-like symptoms after receiving a series of vaccines in a single day. The vaccines given were DTaP, Hib, MMR, varicella, and inactivated polio. Poling was diagnosed months later with encephalopathy (brain disease) caused by a mitochondrial enzyme deficit, a mitochondrial disorder; it is not unusual for children with such deficits to develop neurologic signs between their first and second years. There is little scientific research in the area: no scientific studies show whether childhood vaccines can cause or contribute to mitochondrial disease, and there

title: Pertussis vaccine
text: immunizations each year in the United States), and the risk of death from the disease was high (pertussis killed thousands of Americans each year before the vaccine was introduced). No studies showed a causal connection, and later studies showed no connection of any type between the DPT vaccine and permanent brain injury. The alleged vaccine-induced brain damage proved to be an unrelated condition, infantile epilepsy. In 1990, the "Journal of the American Medical Association" called the connection a "myth" and "nonsense". However, negative publicity and fear-mongering caused the immunization rate to fall in several countries, including the UK, Sweden, and

title: Zika virus
text: of microcephaly reported between October 2015 and January 2016. A number of countries issued travel warnings, and the outbreak was expected to significantly impact the tourism industry. Several countries have taken the unusual step of advising their citizens to delay pregnancy until more is known about the virus and its impact on fetal development. With the 2016 Summer Olympic Games hosted in Rio de Janeiro, health officials worldwide voiced concerns over a potential crisis, both in Brazil and when international athletes and tourists returned home and possibly would spread the virus. Some researchers speculated that only one or two tourists

title: Encephalocele
text: the brain), spastic quadriplegia (paralysis of the limbs), microcephaly (an abnormally small head), ataxia (uncoordinated muscle movement), developmental delay, vision problems, mental and growth retardation, and seizures. Although the exact cause is unknown, encephaloceles are caused by failure of the neural tube to close completely during fetal development. Research has indicated that teratogens (substances known to cause birth defects), trypan blue (a stain used to color dead tissues or cells blue), and arsenic may damage the developing fetus and cause encephaloceles. Proper levels of folic acid have been shown to help prevent such defects when taken before pregnancy, and early

title: Microcephaly
text: addition, viruses such as cytomegalovirus (CMV) or Zika have been shown to infect and kill the primary stem cell of the brain—the radial glial cell, resulting in the loss of future daughter neurons. The severity of the condition may depend on the timing of infection during pregnancy. There is no known cure for microcephaly. Treatment is symptomatic and supportive. People with microcephaly were sometimes sold to freak shows in North America and Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries, where they were known by the name "pinheads". Many of them were presented as different species (e.g., "monkey man") and

title: Zika fever
text: disorders in newborns have been linked to Zika virus infection. In one study in Pernambuco state in Brazil, about 40 percent of babies with Zika-related microcephaly also had scarring of the retina with spots, or pigment alteration. On 20 February 2016, Brazilian scientists announced that they had successfully sequenced the Zika virus genome, and expressed hope that this would help in both developing a vaccine and in determining the nature of any link to birth defects. Also in February 2016, rumors that microcephaly is caused by the use of the larvicide pyriproxyfen in drinking water were refuted by scientists. "It's

title: Celina Turchi
text: in infectology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and her doctorate at the University of São Paulo. She became interested in research mosquito-borne diseases in 1990, when dengue fever was spread in Goiânia. She was professor at UFG until her retirement. In 2015 Turchi was called by the Brazilian Ministry of Health to investigate the growth of microcephaly cases in newborn babies at the state of Pernambuco. At Fiocruz's Aggeu Magalhães Institute, in Recife, she directed the Microcephaly Epidemic Research Group (MERG), a task force for defining the malformation causes. Her group found that zika virus incubated

title: Birth defect
text: simplex virus can cause microcephaly, microphthalmus (abnormally small eyeballs), retinal dysplasia, hepatosplenomegaly, and mental retardation. Both microphthalmus and retinal dysplasia can cause blindness. However, the most common symptom in infants is an inflammatory response that develops during the first three weeks of life. Hyperthermia causes anencephaly, which is when part of the brain and skull are absent in the infant. Mother exposure to toxoplasmosis can cause cerebral calcification, hydrocephalus (causes mental disabilities), and mental retardation in infants. Other birth abnormalities have been reported as well, such as chorioretinitis, microphthalmus, and ocular defects. Syphilis causes congenital deafness, mental retardation, and diffuse

title: Microcephaly
text: pregnant women's "in utero" children received a biologically significant radiation dose that was relatively high due to the massive neutron output of the lower explosive-yielding Little Boy. Microcephaly is the only proven malformation, or congenital abnormality, found in the children of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Intracranial volume also affects this pathology, as it is related with the size of the brain. Microcephaly generally is due to the diminished size of the largest part of the human brain, the cerebral cortex, and the condition can arise during embryonic and fetal development due to insufficient neural stem cell proliferation, impaired or premature neurogenesis,

title: Childhood immunizations in the United States
text: three diseases; Diphtheria, Pertussis and Tetanus. The DTaP vaccine is given as a 5-shot series at 2, 4, and 6 months, the fourth between 12 and 15 months, and the last between 4–6 years. A booster is recommended to be given between 11 and 12 years of age and is called Tdap. Some potential side effects of DTaP are; mild: uncommon: severe: It is important to note that these severe side effects are so rare that it is hard to correlate the vaccine and these symptoms. Potential side effects of Tdap; Diphtheria was once a major cause of illness and

title: Microgen
text: diphtheria, tetanus and hepatitis B, as well as against tetanus, diphtheria and hepatitis B (DTP-Hep B, Hepatitis-Td). In 2010, Microgen began production of an improved formula for dry live influenza vaccine "Ultravak". In 2011, the company received the first samples of bacteriophage preparation against the pathogen Acinetobacter, which is the causative agent of a large number of hospital-acquired (nosocomial) infections and is resistant to antibiotics. Microgen started testing a new anti-tick vaccine for children. In 2011, Microgen supplied more than 60 million doses of vaccines to the various regions of Russia, including BCG (tuberculosis), Grippol, DTP (diphtheria, tetanus), measles and