As you all know, a virus called
Zika has created a major epidemic, having even spread to the U.S. In this blog,
I’ll highlight a bit of general info about Zika virus, including health effects
and transmission. In my next blog I’ll return to Zika, touching on further
points of interest.
A
Brief History
Zika virus is nothing new, in
fact identified as early as 1947 in a monkey in Uganda. Researches quickly
identified mosquitos as a carrier, and not long after discovered the first human
cases of the virus. What is new, however, is the occurrence of large-scale Zika
outbreaks. The first large Zika outbreak in humans occurred as recently as
2007, in the Pacific Island of Yap. According to the World Health Organization,
only 14 human cases of the virus existed prior.
Transmission
The virus is mostly transmitted
via infected mosquitoes (Aedes mosquitos). With that said, as of
2008 sexual transmission has also been documented. We also know that mothers
can pass the virus to their children either through transplacental transmission
or during delivery. Blood transfusion
represents another possible mode of transmission, although in the U.S. the
virus currently poses a low risk to the blood supply according to the U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Health
Effects
The
most common
symptoms of Zika
virus are fever, rash, joint pain, red eyes, as well as muscle pain and
headache. Many people infected with Zika, however, do not develop symptoms or
will only have mild symptoms, lasting just several days to a week. Severe
health affects do also exist. These mostly include birth defects; most notably microcephaly,
in which a baby’s head is smaller than expected. Often this is accompanied by a
smaller brain that may not have developed properly. Other problems with in-utero
development include eye defects, hearing loss, and impaired growth. According
to the CDC, evidence suggests that “Zika virus infection in a woman who is not
pregnant would not pose a risk for birth defects in future pregnancies after
the virus has cleared from her blood.” This is at least good news!
In
addition to birth defects, research suggests that Zika can cause Guillain-Barré
syndrome (GBS), which is an uncommon sickness of the nervous system. GBS
results in a person’s own immune system damaging his/her nerve cells, causing muscle
weakness and sometimes paralysis. According to CDC, GBS has occurred in only 13
individuals. Given the number of U.S. Zika cases, this translates to just 0.035%
infected people actually developing GBS. If we expand this to U.S. territories,
where the epidemic is actually worse, the fraction is even smaller. This makes GBS
extremely rare.
Based
on current scientific evidence, the CDC asserts that once a person has been
infected with Zika virus, he or she is likely to be protected from future Zika
infection.
In
my next blog I’ll return to the Zika epidemic. Importantly, we’ll dive into the
up-to-date outbreak statistics and discuss the efforts being made to halt the
spread of Zika. See you then!
To
encourage future blogs of this kind please join this blog site! Simply click
“join this site” at the top right of this page, log into your account, and
click “follow publicly.” Thanks!
Shahir
Masri
Doctor
of Science
Environmental
Health Science
We are urgently in need of kidney donors for the sum of
ReplyDelete$409,000.00, Contact us now on email for more details.
(WHATS APP MESSAGE +917411484388
PHONE CALL;+917411484388
drrichard803@gmail.com
We are located in India
Dr. Richard D