Birth defects tied to mosquitos

RIO DE JANEIRO—Researchers have found the strongest evidence of a possible link between a mosquito-borne virus and a surge of birth defects in Brazil, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Wednesday. The agency said evidence of the denguelike Zika virus was found in the placentas of two women who miscarried and the brains of two newborns who died. “The evidence is becoming very, very strong of the link between the two,” said Dr. Lyle Petersen of CDC. Finding the virus in the brain tissue is “very significant.”