if you’ve never heard of the zika virusbefore this year, you’re not alone. it was isolated from monkeys in 1947 in thezika rainforest in uganda and since then it hasn't really bothered humans much at all.until now. the zika virus appeared in brazil for the first time in 2015, and more thana million people have been infected since then.just to put that into perspective, the last largest outbreak happened in french polynesiaand it really only spread around to a couple hundred people.80% of people with the virus don’t have symptoms at all.the others have mild symptomsincluding fever and a rash. so here’s why public health officials areconcerned.
now we're learning that when pregnant womencontract zika, they can pass it on to their fetuses and this in turn can cause terrible birth defects.this is microcephaly. it’s a birth defect that involves incomplete head and brain development.so they look like they have very small heads, and what that means is that they're basically mentallydisabled, they have a shorter life expectancy and it's just an absolutely devastating disease.microcephaly has multiple causes, but officials think it might also be linked to zika.that’s why public health officials in latin america and the caribbean are cautioning womennot to get pregnant right now. in the us the centers for disease controland prevention took a similarly extreme measure when they issued an unprecedented travel advisorytelling women who are pregnant to avoid traveling
to countries in latin america where the virusis circulating. that included their very own territory, puerto rico.zika virus is carried by mosquitos. it might be transmitted through sex as well.and the type of mosquitos that spread zika live in warm areas all over the world, includingthe us. the main vector for this disease is called the aedesaegypti, and it's mostly found along the southern us. but there's some question about whetherit's also carried by another mosquito called the aedes albopictus and that has a much broaderrange. right now there's no cure or treatment forzika. they're working on vaccines but that couldtake years. so really the only way to protect
yourself is to try not to get bitten by mosquitos,which is difficult to do. it’s especially important that pregnantwomen are aware of the risk. there needs to be a lot of awareness aboutthe virus and about this potential damage to the fetus later.
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