All You Need To Know About Zika Virus!

Have you heard of Zika virus? What do you know about it? This is all you need to know about Zika virus.

Zika is a disease that is caused by a mosquito- borne virus. It was first discovered in Uganda in 1947. It spreads with the bite of the Aedes mosquito, which are known to bite during the day. This mosquito is also responsible for the transmission of dengue, chikungunya and hay fever. Thus, this disease spreads when a mosquito that has bitten an infected person, bites other people. Apart from mosquitoes, Zika could also be spread through sexual transmission, even when the symptoms of the disease were not present.

Symptoms of Zika Virus

The symptoms that occur with this disease are quite similar to those of other arbovirus infections like dengue. Hence, some of the common symptoms you are likely to see, include:

• Conjunctivitis
• Skin rashes
• Fever
• Pain in the muscles and joints
• Headache
• Malaise

The virus stay in the body of an infected person for about a week. It is unclear how soon the symptoms surface after being infected. But, they are usually mild and last from several days to a week. Because of mildness of the symptoms of Zika virus, people don’t always realise that they have been infected by the virus. Hence, they get rarely admitted to hospitals for this disease.

If you have recently traveled to or live in an area where Zika virus is available (The Caribbean, Central America, The Pacific Islands, and South America), you should definitely consider visiting your healthcare provider and getting yourself checked as soon as possible. You may need to take a blood test to check for signs of the virus.

Treatment

At of today, there is no vaccine available for the Zika virus yet. A person once infected cannot contract the virus again. Since the disease is always mild, there is no fixed treatment in place. People are only advised to get rest, drink lots of water and use common medicines for the treatment of pain and fever. If pregnant women get infected, there is the possibility of birth defects surfacing in the baby.

I hope this helps, stay healthy!