Zika Virus on a Spreading Spree: what we now know that was unknown in the 1950's.

Rupsa Basu,Ebenezer Tumban

doi:10.1186/s12985-016-0623-2

Abstract

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that is transmitted through the bite of Aedes spp mosquitoes and less predominantly, through sexual intercourse. Prior to 2007, ZIKV was associated with only sporadic human infections with minimal or no clinical manifestations. Recently the virus has caused disease outbreaks from the Pacific Islands, the Americas, and off the coast of West Africa with approximately 1.62 million people suspected to be infected in more than 60 countries around the globe. The recent ZIKV outbreaks have been associated with guillain-barré syndrome, congenital syndrome (microcephaly, congenital central nervous system anomalies), miscarriages, and even death. This review summarizes the path of ZIKV outbreak within the last decade, highlights three novel modes of ZIKV transmission associated with recent outbreaks, and points to the hallmarks of congenital syndrome. The review concludes with a summary of challenges facing ZIKV research especially the control of ZIKV infection in the wake of most recent data showing that anti-dengue virus antibodies enhance ZIKV infection.

Highlights

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus in the genus Flavivirus
The information gathered from these searches was used to write this review, which summarizes incidences & global distribution of ZIKV infection, modes of transmission, and challenges associated with ZIKV research
ZIKV infection is a major public health problem that has already spread to many countries around the globe, and is likely to spread to more given the fact that the virus can be transmitted sexually and by mosquitoes to humans

Summary

Background

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus in the genus Flavivirus. The number of ZIKV imported and sexually transmitted cases continue to increase; more than 3130 imported cases (numbers correct as of mid September) have been reported in the continental United States since the outbreak started in Brazil [30] (Fig. 4). ZIKV has been detected in the urine and semen of ZIKV-infected patients [40, 41] with more than 30 cases of sexual transmission from male to female, 1 case from male to male and 1 from female to a male have been reported [42,43,44,45,46,47] This observation shows that the virus can be transmitted between both sexes but the highest frequency of transmission is from male to female. Does the genetic make-up of an individual pre-dispose that individual to ZIKVassociated GBS or microcephaly?

Conclusions

Findings

63. Zika virus infection