Zika

  Zika

  P.K.Ghatak, MD

Zika.

Zika is another Aedes mosquito borne viral illness in humans. Zika resembles like Dengue fever and Chikungunya in clinical features and also has its own distinguishing features.

Incubation period is longer, 2 weeks; Zika is also transmitted by sexual contact and the virus may remain viable in the sperm of recovered males for 90 days. The febrile illness, last only 2 to 3 days and have similar skin rashes and muscles and bone pain, but neurological complications are more prevalent; and most of all Zika contacted by pregnant women  results in the development of deformed fetal brain and often a small brain called Microcephaly develop. Congenital cataract, macular scars and retinal pigment mottling are also seen. In adults Guillian-Barre syndrome, meningoencephalitis, transverse myelitis and other neurological complication may develop.

History:

Zika virus was first detected in Macaque monkey in Zika forest of Uganda in 1947. In 1952, human Zika cases were reported from Uganda. By 1980, Zika was widespread in Africa and South Asia. In 2015 an endemic in Brazil was wide spread and cause panic because of rising incidence of abnormal brain formation in newborns and neurological complications in adults. Puerto Rico ad US Virgin island followed by Miami, FL and Texas reported cases of Zika in 2016 and 2017. Now the disease is on the wane.

Diagnosis and treatment of Zika are in the same line as Dengue and Chikungunya.

No vaccine or any antiviral agents have been developed,

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