Zika virus is currently impacting the Americas with its third major global outbreak. Most notably, this outbreak, which began in 2015, has been temporally linked to cases of microcephaly within Brazil. Zika’s worrisome fetal outcomes have raised concern about perinatal Zika infection. There is little known about the virus’s impact on pregnancy in various trimesters, the timeline of the infectio...

Zika virus was first described in the 1940s. During more than all of a century, less than 20 human infections have been reported. Emergence of Zika virus started with a first outbreak in the Pacific area in 2007 (Federated States of Micronesia), a second large outbreak occurred in the Pacific in 2013/2014 (French Polynesia) and subsequently the virus spread in other Pacific Islands. Zika virus ...

Cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome were also recorded during the Zika outbreak in Brazil (6). Moreover, soon after health authorities in Brazil warned of an increase in the prevalence of microcephaly in newborns that might be associated with Zika virus infection in mothers during pregnancy, health authorities in French Polynesia confirmed that neurologic congenital abnormalities also had been obs...

laboratory indicated a Ct value of 35.82). Semen samples collected on days 99 and 117 tested negative for Zika virus RNA. Attempts at virus isolation from the semen sample collected on day 23 failed to cultivate infectious particles. It is very unlikely that transmission of Zika virus infection to patient 2 occurred through a mosquito bite. Although occasional interceptions of exotic mosquito s...

Background: Following emergence of Zika virus in the Americas, a devastating new congenital syndrome has been documented, leading to significant morbidity among Zika-infected fetuses and neonates. Case presentation: A 29-year-old pregnant woman infected with Zika virus at 9-weeks gestation in Trinidad presented with one-month of fever, headache, and myalgia with persistent viremia. Significant ...

People living in areas affected by Zika virus should take measures to protect themselves from mosquito-bites and destroy mosquito habitats to prevent pregnant women becoming infected with Zika virus, according to WHO interim guidance issued last month. Zika virus infection in pregnancy is typically a mild disease, but an unusual increase in cases of neurological disorders and neonatal malformat...

Zika virus is an emerging arbovirus transmitted by Aedes sp. mosquitoes like the Dengue and Chikungunya viruses. Zika virus was until recently considered a mild pathogenic mosquito-borne flavivirus with very few reported benign human infections. In 2007, an epidemic in Micronesia initiated the turnover in the epidemiological history of Zika virus and more recently, the potential association wit...

Zika virus infection is an emerging mosquito-borne disease, first identified in Uganda in 1947. It is caused by the Zika arbovirus, and transmitted by the bites of infected mosquitoes of the genus Aedes. For almost half a century, the Zika virus was reported as the causative agent of sporadic human infections. In 2007, the Zika virus emerged outside Asia and Africa causing an epidemic on the Is...

1. Hayes EB. Zika virus outside Africa. Emerg Infect Dis. 2009;15:1347–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid1509.090442 2. Lanciotti RS, Kosoy OL, Laven JJ, Velez JO, Lambert AJ, Johnson AJ, et al. Genetic and serologic properties of Zika virus associated with an epidemic, Yap State, Micronesia, 2007. Emerg Infect Dis. 2008;14:1232–9. http://dx.doi. org/10.3201/eid1408.080287 3. European Centre for...

Because of the global spread of Zika virus, accurate and high-throughput diagnostic immunoassays are needed. We compared the sensitivity and specificity of 5 commercially available Zika virus serologic assays to the recommended protocol of Zika virus IgM-capture ELISA and plaque-reduction neutralization tests. Most commercial immunoassays showed low sensitivity, which can be increased.