The Zika Virus


The Zika virus
The outbreak of the Zika virus has caused enormous trauma in areas within Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. However, the virus is predicted to spread very heavily and it will not be easy to locate where this virus will, next, strike. But how much is actually known about this virus? This week Universal Medicine will be exploring the history, causes and the symptoms of Zika virus.

 The history of the Zika virus
Firstly, the Zika virus isn't something which appeared all of a sudden- in fact the Zika virus was discovered a while back. In 1947, the Zika virus was found in Uganda; the term "Zika" translates to "Overgrown" in Luganda (this is the common language spoken in Uganda). A group of scientists placed a certain species of monkey, Rhesus macaque, within the Zika forest located in Uganda. Later, it had seemed that the monkey had developed a fever in which researchers expressed as the Zika virus. Since the primary encounter of the Zika virus until 2007 there was evidence of a Zika virus infection in Africa as well as areas of South East Asia but these events were very rare. Subsequently, in 2007 an epidemic occurred in Yap Island- an epidemic is a widespread of an infectious disease. Moreover, it was in April 2007 when the first outbreak of the disease occurred outside of Africa. A more recent outbreak of Zika virus, outside of Africa, occurred in Brazil in which approximately 500 individuals had flu-like symptoms.

The causes of the Zika virus
The Zika virus is a mosquito-borne disease caused by Aedes species of mosquito. These species tend to be found outdoors as well as indoors putting individuals at high risk. Also, these are active throughout the day. When someone is affected with the Zika virus, the mosquito infects itself hence when they feed on a person the disease is spread. There is a number of possible reasons to the growing number of mosquito-borne diseases:
  • Climate change
  • Increased travel
  • Increased urbanisation
Symptoms of the Zika virus
There are a few symptoms of Zika virus, the symptoms below were retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/305163.php
Symptoms:
 Fever
Rash
Joint pain
Conjunctivitis (red eyes)
Muscle pain
Headache
Pain behind the eyes
Vomiting

Thanks for reading this week’s blog, 
Universal Medicine (Adil Rahman)

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