SHOCK ZIKA CLAIM: Virus will send human race back TWO MILLION YEARS

BRAIN defects caused by the deadly Zika virus could set human evolution back TWO MILLION YEARS, scientists have sensationally claimed.

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Almost 4,000 cases have been confirmed in Brazil since the outbreak

Genetic mutations triggered by the lethal pathogen threaten to become irrevocably established in human DNA, they warn.

Severe deformities resulting from the virus slowly altering the genome will be passed on through generations to come.

Rather than continuing to evolve, development of the species will regress as the microbe causes human brains to shrink over thousands of years.

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Generation to come could suffer from brain defects

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A report to be published in the Journal of Astrobiology and Outreach claims the Zika virus threatens a “a dramatic retrogression of human evolution”.

It says the worst case scenario would be that viral DNA becomes encoded in the human genome giving rise to “a population of humans with diminished brain size and cognition”.

Author Professor Edward Steele, biologist and immunologist the CY O’Connor ERADE Village Foundation in Australia, said: “Whilst the Zika virus continues to grab headlines, its possible long-term impact on humanity appears to have escaped attention.

The Zika epidemic, unless it is promptly checked, could thus turn back the clock two million years

Professor Steele

The shocking claim comes as governments prepare for a global crisis as the disease spreads across the world.

Almost 4,000 cases have been confirmed since the outbreak was identified last year in Brazil.

Although its main route of transmission is via mosquitoes, several new cases this year have been linked to sexual contact.

Scientists say this indicates the virus is evolving quickly to spread through the human race without the need of an insect vector.

It points towards the microbe inserting information into the human genome in a similar way to HIV allowing it to spread like wildfire through the global population.

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Professor Steele added: “The Zika virus appears to have recently changed genetically so as to cause an increased incidence of microcephaly – diminished brain size – in babies born to mothers infected with the virus during pregnancy.

“Microcephaly and the Zika virus now appear to show signs of being sexually transmissible, thus indicating that genes causing diminished brain volume and cognition may be gaining ingress into the human germ line.”

He said the size of the human brain has doubled over the past 500,000 to two million years.

Unless stopped, the Zika virus may be capable of integrating into the human genome and halting or even reversing this process.

It means generations to come could suffer from incurable brain defects even if the current outbreak is eventually stopped.

Professor Steele added: “The worst case scenario is that the Zika virus latches on to our evolving germ line and gives rise to a population of humans with diminished brain size and cognition.