The Zika Virus : A Study On Yellow Fever

Researchers have built up a nonhuman primate model of Zika infection disease to better comprehend its course in people, particularly in pregnant ladies. David O'Connor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and partners infused eight rhesus macaques—two of them pregnant—with the Asian strain of the infection as of now flowing in South and Central America. The non-pregnant and pregnant monkeys were still contaminated 21 days and up to 57 days after the fact, individually, and all creatures were resistant to reinfection 10 weeks post-infusion, the scientists reported today (June 28) in Nature Communications. Before distribution, the group was posting its information online continuously.

“This study marks a turning point in the Zika outbreak. It is now clear that the virus causes microcephaly”( Tom Frieden). Microcephaly is an abnormal smallness of the head, a congenital condition associated with incomplete brain development. With the Olympics being held in Brazil, there is much cause to attention the potential disease being brought back to the U.S. by female athletes bringing an epidemic to carry havoc on the citizens of the United States. It can be spread very easily through mosquito bites of the yellow fever mosquito. From the mosquitoes, the virus does not cause many symptoms to its victims generating unknown awareness of the virus. “ Only one in five people who become infected with Zika virus will feel sick. Symptoms of Zika virus infection include fever, rash, pink eye, pains in joints, pain behind the eyes, headache, and muscle pains”( Levison, Matthew). The symptoms, if any, last 4-7 days in most cases. The Zika Virus is an easily spread disease with few symptoms.

Marsha- As we know, the Zika virus can be passed from the mother to the fetus and can cause congenital microcephaly and other severe brain defects to the fetus. If you have a confirmed case of the Zika virus, does your department have a protocol in place for scanning these patients? Have you performed a case that there was a confirmed case of the Zika virus? If so, can you tell us what the physicians plan was for the patient and fetus?

Since then, the Zika virus has been rapidly spreading in Brazil and other Latin American and Caribbean countries. On Feb. 1, 2016, the Zika virus was announced as a public health urgency by the World Health Organization (WHO), and the virus was linked to the microcephaly in which babies are born with a brain defect (Tavernise, 2016). The Zika is not a deadly disease, and the symptoms are: fever, rash, inflamed eyes, and joint pain (Ramzy, 2016). However, one significant effect of the Zika virus is the microcephaly because a baby with microcephaly has abnormally small head which includes brain, eyes, and ears, damages (CDC, 2016). It is not only the baby’s life that is effected but also the parent’s lives will be changed because the parents have to take care of the baby for the rest of their lives. More than 3,800 infants in Brazil have recently been found to have microcephaly (Romero, 2016). The Zika epidemic has spread 25 countries (Jacob, 2016); however, why is the Zika epidemic growing more serious in Brazil? The Zika epidemic has been attributed to some factors, including: the Aedes aegypi mosquitoes’ habitats, the

February 1, 2016 the World Health announced a PHEIC (Public Health Emergency of International Concern) that declared the Zika virus was a global health emergency. Brazil being the most affected country in the world right now has cases where pregnant women with the virus have given birth to children with smaller heads causing their brains to not develop correctly.The Zika virus is a flavivirus (Karimi) that is related to the common dengue virus and West Nile disease. A flavivirus is a group of RNA (a ribonucleic acid), that are mostly carried by mosquitoes, flies, fleas, etc. The virus carried causes severe human diseases, that are most commonly related to the Dengue and West Nile disease. The disease

April 2015, small but deadly outbreaks began in Brazil, South America. Hundreds of Brazilian women infected by the Zika virus, endanger their unborn children to develop a form of brain damage called, Microcephaly. In the early months of 2016, South America’s CDCP (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) announced the Zika virus has taken full effect, and called for a state of emergency. Researchers today, study the effects of the Zika virus, where it comes/evolved from, and if there is a cure.

The easiest way the Zika virus can be transmitted is by being bitten by a mosquito carrying the virus. Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are the two mosquitoes that generally carry dengue virus and chikunguya as well as the Zika virus carry the Zika virus (“Destination News – Asia”). With the rise people infected with the Zika virus, these two mosquitos are expected to expand to other countries (see figure

While Zika can cause new borns to be born with astringent brain affliction, there may be an opportunity to tame the virus to fight brain tumors in adults. The Zika virus, which landed in South America from Polynesia about four years back, is most hazardous in pregnant ladies. It can cause microcephaly and related neurological issues in the children of ladies who were contaminated while pregnant, also with a higher rate of a miscarriage.

The Zika Virus is a condition that initially started in Brazil and has now made its way around the world by transmission of mosquitos.The symtoms of Zika virus are typically last only a week or so and include fever, rash, and aching joints. Many adults contract the virus with no symptoms, which makes it easy to spread to their partners through sexual transmission and even onto their fetus if they are pregnant (Jin). Women began bearing children that were born with microcephaly, which is a condition that causes the head and brain to be smaller than normal. It is thought that the Zika virus starts to delay the growth of the skull from the beginning of fetal development (Teixeira). Serology tests are used to detect the virus in the mother, and

Aedes species carry the virus. Many people think that Zika is a brand new virus, however, that is untrue. Zika was first recognized in Uganda in 1947 in monkeys; it was identified in humans in 1952 in Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania (WHO 2016). Usual symptoms include fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis and last for a few days to a few weeks. Because of the mild symptoms people think they just have a common cold and many cases of Zika go unreported. Even pregnant women may be unaware they have the virus and do not check to see if their baby has developed Microcephaly. Microcephaly causes babies to be born with heads much smaller than the average child’s, which leads to developmental delays, disabilities, difficulty swallowing and walking, hearing loss, and vision problems. Babies born with severe Microcephaly are at risk of mortality. Brazil has banned the use of pesticides to control the Zika outbreak because there was concern that the pesticides were causing Microcephaly because previous Zika outbreaks did not link with Microcephaly; however, Zika mutates frequently and it has been confirmed that Zika is the link and not pesticides (Mercer 2016). Researches studied Zika infected pregnant mice and they found that the mice born had smaller than average heads; they also had other abnormalities such as, eye problems and cell death. One of the researchers, Muotri,

For a couple of weeks now, a so-called epidemic of the Zika virus has been plastered all over the media’s health sections. Many people have ascribed the rise in the Zika virus as the leading cause to rise in the cases of Microcephaly (a condition where babies are born with abnormally small heads). This belief has become so strong that the WHO has even recommended that pregnant women not travel to areas affected with the Zika virus. As a result of these recent events, the question “ Does Zika actually cause microcephaly?” begs to be asked. The unfortunate answer to this question is that we don’t know. The article which I chose to read dealt with why it is so hard to ascribe microcephaly to the Zika virus and what we should do about it. In short, the reason why it is so hard to prove is

“The Zika pandemic has reached the united states” millions have read across headlines in the US spreading panic and fear. Most of the fear comes from a lack of understanding of the Zika virus. The Zika virus is not a dangerous to most healthy adults and child causing only symptoms of joint pain, rash, low grade fever and red eyes, though most patients exhibit little to no symptoms. While the disease is not harmful to healthy adults and children it can have dangerous effects on pregnant women’s unborn child. Zika can cause the fetus to develop microcephaly which causes the baby’s head to be born abnormally small, decreased brain size causing causes cognitive deficiencies and vision disabilities. In the US the Zika pandemic has the greatest effect on US common wealth Puerto

As discussed earlier, mosquitoes of the genus Aedes are transmitting the disease when they take the blood of a host (Durbin). This is the main spread of the disease, but not the only transmission technique. Unprotected sexual intercourse with an infected male can also pass the disease (Fiorentino). Clinical studies have only shown a male passing the disease to a woman, and not the inverse way. The final transmission method is infected blood transfusions (Fiorentino). Although there have not been any confirmed cases of this occurrence in South America, the Zika outbreak in French Polynesia found “approximately 3% of donated blood samples positive for Zika Virus” (Fiorentino). This is likely a reality also in South America but cannot be confirmed due to the confines of time and testing data. These three transmission techniques all can lead to an infected pregnant mother, and therefore a deformed

Scientist suspect that the mutation in the Zika virus, that causes the abnormally small sized heads and brains of babies, first showed up in 2013. Discovered decades ago the Zika virus is spread by mosquitoes, but wasn’t linked to high rates of microcephaly (a birth defect where a baby's head is smaller than expected when compared to other babies) until recently. Researchers, unsure as to why the birth defects were being caused by the virus, originally thought that it might have been the immune system of the people in South American that was causing the problems but a researcher, Shi, and a team in China hypothesized that these changes, were brought about by a change or mutation in the Zika virus.

The Zika virus is a flavivirus that is most commonly transmitted through the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito. This virus was first found in 1947 in a Ugandan rainforest and roughly ten years later the first human was infected with the virus. Since this initial outbreak, the virus has circulated through Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands. This virus was contained to these areas until it came into the western hemisphere in 2015. In 2015 cases of the Zika virus were found in Brazil and by May of that year the Brazilian Health Organization ordered a state of emergency because an estimated 1.5 million people were infected with the virus. Since May, this virus has further spread from Brazil into the Caribbean, Central and South America. Symptoms of this illness are mild but include fever, rash, conjunctivitis and joint pain. Because this is a mild virus many people do not show symptoms and do not realize that they have been infected. For the people who do show symptom’s they do not occur until one or two weeks after being bitten by the infected mosquito and symptoms only last a week. Right now there are no treatment options available for the virus, it is just suggested that infected people get plenty of rest and remain hydrated. The biggest concern about this virus is its effect on pregnant women and its relationship with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). When contracted by a pregnant woman, the Zika virus not only effects the mother but can be detrimental for