Zika virus
781 Views

GC: n

S: WHO – http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/zika/en/ (last access: 19 February 2016); WebMD – http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/zika-virus-symptoms-prevention (last access: 19 February 2016).

N: 1. In 1947, scientists researching yellow fever placed a rhesus macaque in a cage in the Zika Forest (zika meaning “overgrown” in the Luganda language), near the East African Virus Research Institute in Entebbe, Uganda. The monkey developed a fever, and researchers isolated from its serum a transmissible agent that was first described as Zika virus in 1952. It was subsequently isolated from a human in Nigeria in 1954. From its discovery until 2007, confirmed cases of Zika virus infection from Africa and Southeast Asia were rare. In 2007, however, a major epidemic occurred in Yap Island, Micronesia. More recently, epidemics have occurred in Polynesia, Easter Island, the Cook Islands and New Caledonia.

2. Zika virus, infectious agent of the genus Flavivirus in the family Flaviviridae. Zika virus was first isolated in 1947 from a rhesus monkey that had been caged in the canopy of the Zika Forest in Uganda. The following year it was isolated from Aedes africanus mosquitoes collected from the same forest. Antibodies against Zika virus were first identified in humans in the early 1950s. The virus subsequently was found to cause a febrile illness in humans, known as Zika fever, symptoms of which are similar to certain other mosquito-borne diseases, including dengue and chikungunya fever.

3. In the context of Zika virus infection, unexpected increase in cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome has been described in affected countries. The most likely explanation of available evidence from outbreaks of Zika virus infection and Guillain-Barré syndrome is that Zika virus infection is a trigger of Guillain-Barré syndrome.

4. Phraseologism: Zika virus infection.

S: 1. http://www.zikavirusnet.com/history-of-zika.html (last access: 19 February 2016). 2. EncBrit – http://global.britannica.com/science/Zika-virus (last access: 19 February 2016). 3. WHO – http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/guillain-barre-syndrome/en/ (last access: 9 March 2018). 4. TERMIUM PLUS – http://goo.gl/WLtu3b (last access: 19 February 2016).

SYN:
S:

CR: Aedes aegypti, Aedes japonicus, chikungunya, dengue, Guillain-Barré syndrome, hydrops, RNA virus, Stegomyia albopicta, virus, yellow fever.