“Our paper shows that duramycin efficiently blocks infection of numerous placental cell types and intact first-trimester human placental tissue by contemporary strains of Zika virus recently isolated from the current outbreak in Latin America, where Zika virus infection during pregnancy has been associated with microcephaly and other congenital birth defects,” said Eva Harris, PhD, a professor of infectious diseases and vaccinology at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. “This indicates that duramycin or similar drugs could effectively reduce or prevent transmission of Zika virus from mother to fetus across both potential routes and prevent associated birth defects.”
Press release (UC Berkeley): http://news.berkeley.edu/story_jump/antibiotic-may-block-zika-virus-infection-of-fetus/
NY Times coverage: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/19/health/zika-virus-placenta.html