Zika Virus Disease Essay

The Zika virus is a virus that is mostly spread by the bite of an infected mosquito. It is a widespread virus in Asia and Africa. This virus is not a new diseased that just developed, it has been around for years. Zika was first exposed in Uganda in 1947. Nonetheless, fear didn’t start arising until this year 2016. This virus is best explained as discomfort in the muscle, a fever, being weak and symptoms possibly lasting for days. It’s quite a different virus to detect compare to other viruses’ symptoms. Zika posts danger to the human body but more importantly, it places pregnant women and babies at more danger than anyone else. This virus can be easily passed from a pregnant women to her fetus, putting her life and her child life in danger. If the virus is transmitted to the embryo, the virus will produce severe damage to the baby’s growth and the women life. Considering this, we need to extremely pay close attention to our health and this virus.

Zika virus is an emerging communicable disease first identified in Uganda in 1947. It was spotted in rhesus monkeys and recognized in persons in 1952 (Sikka et al., 2016). Later in 1973, there was an outbreak in Nigeria. In 2013 and 2014, it affected France with approximately twenty thousand people. It has been presumed to cause rare and minor symptoms. In 2015, it suddenly emerged in Brazil and spread in an explosive way through South America, the Caribbean, and Central America (Sirohi et al., 2016). In summer 2016, it arrived in the United States of America. Exploring Zika virus helps in creating an understanding of the emerging communicable disease through identifying its source, location, and the strategy of addressing it.

“The level of concern is high as is the level of uncertainty,” said the World Health Organization (WHO) Director General –Dr Margaret Chan when briefing the executive board on the Zika situation in Geneva on 28th January 2016. She also mentioned four main reasons as to why the WHO is deeply concerned about the Zika situation, which include the virus’ virulence, potential for further international spread, lack of population immunity and lack of vaccines, specific treatments and Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs). Later on, on 1st February, the WHO declares an international public health emergency after the Zika virus was linked to thousands of birth defects in Brazil. The following paragraphs give an insight on the history, symptoms, diagnosis, transmission and treatment. All this will explain as to why the Zika virus epidemic is a global health concern.

There are many problems facing the world today ranging from war to poverty, and disease. Many of these issues can be contained within a country; war for example, will remain between the countries involved. People do not carry war with them by traveling outside their country. Poverty impacts many countries but again it is not transferred from one country to another because of travel. Disease however is one problem that does not take borders into account. Diseases can impact anyone, anywhere, at anytime. It knows no boundaries, nor does it take economic positions into account. Diseases are difficult for states to deal with because many can be transferred very easily, which makes crafting policy to combat the spread of the disease quite challenging.

Although the Zika virus may be considered a new epidemic virus to many people in the United States Zika in fact has been a concern for Africa and Southeast Asia since the mid nineteen forties. Researchers now believe that the first strand of Zika that was traced back to a primate has now mutated into a more complex strand of virus. The newly formed outbreak of Zika started in western pacific islands and has spread to South America with high concentration of outbreaks in highly populated Brazil. The most recent outbreaks have been seen in the Caribbean Islands and Puerto Rico. Zika is an “ Abrovirus”, which is a virus that affects RNA in humans and is spread through arthropods such as mosquitoes. (Facui, 2016) Zika is a complex virus affecting individuals in particular ways; unlike strep throat that has specific signs and symptoms that doctors can diagnose. Zika may be viewed as a mild flu or in some cases in particular such as the reported case in the French Polynesia and Brazil of having neurological impacts on the patient. (Mlakar, 2016) New reports and studies have shown that the Zika virus can affect fetal development. Microcephaly in particular is a new- found impact on fetus development and mothers infected with the virus. The impacts of Zika are still being learned and only time will be able to present a cure to the virus, vaccines for other abrovirus are now being modified to help prevent the infectious spread of Zika. As headlines build and new cases are reported

The zika is a member of Flaviviridae family and the virus is transmitted via mosquito to humans and the findings of the experiments done by Dr. Kellie Ann Jurado and her team are extremely important for modern society since it’s a major health problem that even affected Floridian residents. Sika virus has caused a recent epidemic and spread in the Americas. The zika virus is not a new virus but only recently is has being more studied it was isolated from monkeys in 1947. The spread of the zika was relatively silence since the pathogenic consequences it cause were not as great as other viruses. When the sika virus hit the Americas a large group of scientists and Dr. Kellie Ann Jurado included started to see

As the number of individuals being diagnosed with the Zika virus, there is a growing concern on the effects of how the virus actually affects the system and how the body responds to it. The virus is huge problem as there are no licensed medical countermeasures. Vaccines, therapies and preventive drugs are being developed but they are years away. The journal article published by Robert W. Malone, Jane Homan, Michael V. Callahan, Jill Glasspool-Malone, Lambodhar Damodaran, Adriano De Bernardi Schneider, Rebecca Zimler, James Talton, Ronald R. Cobb, Ivan Ruzic, Julie Smith-Gagen, Daniel Janies, and James Wilson (2016) talks about the results of potential medical countermeasures being developed and reported cases of the Zika virus.

The two articles describe some basic knowledge about the Zika virus. Nearly 30 countries reported the Zika virus from last spring. Many experts began to study how to treat the Zika virus. However, the warning from World Health Organization predicated “ As many as four million people would be infected by the end of the year”. At the present stage, find out the root reason by international cooperation become the most important thing.

Zika infection is a developing mosquito-borne infection that was initially recognized in Uganda in 1947 in rhesus monkeys through a checking system of sylvatic yellow fever. It was in this way distinguished in people in 1952 in Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. Flare-ups of Zika infection illness have been recorded in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific. Google is helping to combat the Zika virus through funds and using their employees to help crunch number of the epidemic emerging.

The most recent outbreak of the Zika Virus through Latin America and the Caribbean, and its association with microcephaly in newborns has attracted significant attention from researchers and health specialists. In 2013 and 2015, large outbreaks of the virus were respectively reported in French Polynesia and Brazil. In 1947, The Zika virus was first identified in Uganda in Rhesus monkeys. It was then identified in humans in 1952 in some parts of Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania The virus, also known as ZIKV, is an arbovirus of the Flaviviridae family, and is closely related to dengue, yellow fever and Chikungunya viruses (Al-Qahtani et al., 2016.); an arbovirus refers to a group of viruses transmitted by arthropod vectors (MedicineNet.com, 2016). The Zika disease is caused by the Zika virus that is primarily transmitted through a bite of an infected Aedes mosquito. Though the incubation period of Zika is not clear, it is estimated to be around 2-7 days after the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito (World Health Organization, 2016).

About one in five people in the U.S. will contract this disease and become ill. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and the World Health Organization, both important medical places has declared that the Zika virus is a global health emergency. Many pregnant women have had children with a birth defect because of this agile disease spreading rapidly among mostly, pregnant women. Many query if they can contract this disease even if they are not pregnant. Do you know the answer?

Zika virus disease, also referred to as Zika, is a disease that people can contract from the Zika virus. The Zika virus first emerged in Uganda in 1947 in rhesus monkeys. Its name comes from the Zika forest located in Uganda (CDC).

As of mid-2016, an epidemic of the Zika fever is ongoing in the Americas and the Pacific. The outbreak began early 2015, in Brazil, then quickly spread to other parts of South America before reaching North America. In January 2016, the World Health Organization stated that the virus was expected to spread throughout most of the Americas by year's

Before 2015 the Zika virus had only appeared in outbreaks around Africa and the Pacific Islands. However, after the first cases in Brazil it has spread quickly through the

The primary means by which the Zika virus spreads is through bites from infected mosquitoes of which the Aedes mosquito is known to be the primary carrier (Center for Disease Control, 2016). These mosquitos are active at night but are most prominent during the daytime. This is not, however, the only means of transmission. An infected person may pass the virus on from mother to child, during sexual contact, or during a blood transfusion. The transmission from mother to child is of serious concern since the virus has been linked to microcephaly, a birth defect showcased by a smaller head when compared to other babies (CDC, 2016). This is a sign that the brain has stopped growing. Once a person is infected they will may experience a combination of fever, headache, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis. The symptoms will usually remain for a period of two to seven days. Fortunately, the number of fatalities caused by the virus has remained limited so far. Of those persons who survive after becoming infected with the virus it is believed that they will have a type of immunity that will prevent another infection from occurring (World Health Organization, 2016).