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The Zika Virus: A Summary

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Summary of the Article
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization are tracking the Zika virus and noticing the recent surplus of reported cases with symptoms requiring medical attention. However, before the virus was deemed a hazard, researchers in the 1940’s discovered the virus among monkeys in Africa, but it is believed the virus had gone unnoticed for thousands of years. Later on, researchers again recorded the Zika virus but in a species of mosquito, which can transfer the virus between any host they bite. The virus easily spread across Africa and into Asia and in a country with the specific species of mosquito. Around this time period, cases found in humans only showed mild symptoms. In 2013, the virus sent 28,000 people of French Polynesia into …show more content…

The Zika virus was found in the amniotic fluid of a women who gave birth to a child with microcephaly, a defect in which a child’s head is much smaller than average. An increase in cases of microcephaly among newborns brought cautionary attention to women possibly carrying the Zika virus and the risk of having children. Researchers believe the virus is only transmitted through mosquitoes, but that explains why the virus is spreading across countries and continents. Though it is not booming in North America, travelers have visited the country while they carried the virus.

How This Article Relates to Viruses
The article I chose about the Zika virus is relevant to what we are learning in class about viruses because it is an example of a widespread virus that is spread to humans through mosquitoes and not from human to human, it affects the host’s body in a negative manner, and it has developed into new forms to affect different species in advanced ways. Since the first discovery of the virus, researchers have found that the virus is only transferred human

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