Zika

                                                                              Zika

                                                                    P.K.Ghatak, MD

Zika.

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

The 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 lasts only 2 to 3 days and has similar skin rashes and muscle and bone pain, but neurological complications are more prevalent; and most of all, Zika contracted by pregnant women results in the development of a deformed fetal brain, and often a small brain called Microcephaly develops. Congenital cataract, macular scars, and retinal pigment mottling are also seen. In adults, Guillain-Barré syndrome, meningoencephalitis, transverse myelitis and other neurological complications may develop.

History:

Zika virus was first detected in a Macaque monkey in the 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 widespread and caused panic because of the rising incidence of abnormal brain formation in newborns and neurological complications in adults. Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, 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. Zika vaccines were developed and approved for use, but were withdrawn because of major complications. A new Zika vaccine is in the development stage in Brazil.

 edited May 2025.

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