REVIEW OF ZIKA VIRUS (KEY IJP************326)

• Pavan Dhondu Tagad,Yash Ganesh Kulkarni,Mr. Sandesh S. Dahiwal

Abstract

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne Flavivirus s belonging to the Flaviviridae family.1 It was first isolated from a rhesus monkey in the Zika forest of Uganda in 1947.It is closely related to several other flaviviruses that cause global disease, including dengue virus (DENV), yellow fever virus (YFV), Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), West Nile virus (WNV), and tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) 2. The virus spreads primarily through the bite of infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, and can also be transmitted through sexual intercourse, and during pregnancy, from a mother to her fetus.3 It was not until 1952 that The first case of infection in humans was described in a 10-year-old female from Nigeria in 1954 4 In 2007, the first major outbreak of Zika fever took place on the Western Pacific Island of Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia 5Since then, multiple outbreaks of ZIKV have been reported worldwide. Two larger epidemics affecting over 30,000 people took place in 2013 and 2014 in French Polynesia 6,7. In 2016, the World Health Organization declared the ZIKV epidemic as an international health emergency . ZIKV infection is mostly asymptomatic and often causes a self-limiting febrile illness in 20% of adults 8; however, it has been causally associated with congenital malformations and neurological disorders, the virus has recently raised a Public Health Emergency of International Concern due to the dramatic increase in the cases of prenatal microcephaly and Guillain-Barr Syndrome (GBS) in ZIKV endemic regions 9. Microcephaly is characterized by at least two standard deviation reduction in brain volume intellectual and motor disabilities, and behavioral issues 10. Multiple development factors, such as genetic, environmental, and infectious exposure, during pregnancy are known to contribute to the onset of prenatal microcephaly.GBS, on the other hand, is a rare autoimmune disorder of the peripheral nervous system which could result in muscle weakness, paralysis, or even death 11.