Border Basics
What you should know about the Zika virus
By Sera Madrigrano
Aedes aegypti mosquito feeding. Z
ika virus is spread by the fe- male Aedes mosquitoes (A. aegypti and A. albopictus) and is named after the Zika For-
est of Uganda, where the virus was first isolated in monkeys. Te Zika virus, first identified in hu- mans in the 1950s, continued to be re- corded in African countries and parts of Asia over the next thirty years. Te first major outbreak of the virus occurred in 2007, in Micronesia, in the southwest- ern Pacific Ocean. It was also the first time Zika was detected outside of Africa and Asia. Since 2013 several significant outbreaks have occurred on islands and archipelagos from the Pacific region and French Polynesia. By early 2015, South America was re-
porting widespread outbreaks in Brazil and Columbia. Several more countries, territories and areas reported cases of microcephaly or central nervous sys- tem malformations in babies that could be associated with the Zika virus. Te World Health Organization (WHO)
60 • Fall 2016
declared that these outbreaks continue to constitute a public health emergen- cy of national concern this past spring. Zika has spread to a number of regions since being introduced to the Americas and will likely persist in these areas. Close monitoring of pregnant women in countries experiencing Zika out- breaks continues today. Spread and symptomology
While Zika is primarily spread by the bite of infected mosquitoes, it can also be transmitted from a mother who is infected to her unborn baby or during birth, sexually from an infected male to his partner and also from a female to male (for up to six months after infec- tion), and through cell, blood and tissue donations from infected donors. Te symptoms in healthy adults are
typically mild, lasting two to seven days; in fact, the majority of infected people do not show symptoms. Most people experience a full recovery without severe complications or hospitalization. Te incubation period ranges from
three to 12 days and the virus generally remains in the blood of an infected per- son for approximately seven days. Zika is a member of the virus family
Flaviviridae and has symptoms similar to other mosquito-transmitted viruses such as dengue and chikungunya. Te infection can be misdiagnosed or go un- reported. Symptoms include low-grade fever, headaches, retro-orbital pain, con- junctivitis (pink eye), a maculopapular skin rash spreading from the face to the body, transient arthritis or joint swelling and muscle pain. Guillain-Barré syn- drome (GBS) has recently been linked to the virus. For unborn fetuses, the symptoms
are far more severe. Children born to mothers infected with the virus can ex- perience incomplete brain development, develop microcephaly (abnormally small heads) and other neurological disorders. While deaths related to the virus have been reported, they have been due to mi- crocephaly and congenital abnormalities associated with Zika virus infection.
The Hub
Photo by Muhammad Mahdi Karim (
www.micro2macro.net).
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80