Discovered in 1947, why has Zika just started out?

Global warming will be the main cause for the future, many infectious diseases have the ability to erupt and change extremely abnormally.

Recently, Zika virus is the focus of world public opinion when it becomes a dangerous disease raging in the Americas. During the monitoring process, the researchers assumed a link between the virus and a type of birth defect called microcephaly. This disease causes babies to be born with abnormal small heads and shrunken brain.

In recent studies, scientists have reported finding the Zika virus gene in amniotic fluid and the brain of a fetus with a small head. However, these figures are still too small to be a solid proof. Meanwhile, a number of Argentinian doctors have published a report stating the opposite idea that neither Zika virus nor mosquito-repellent drugs cause minor headaches.

The first ever Zika virus was discovered in 1947 from an infected Rhesus monkey in a forest called Zika in Uganda. The virus belongs to the same family of viruses as dengue, yellow fever and West Nile virus. However, Zika is said to be relatively harmless. People infected with this virus only get rash and mild fever.

Zika then began transmitting to the Americas and penetrating through Asia in 2007. Since then the virus has spread exponentially.

Zika virus is similar to Ebola, often proliferating in endemic animal populations. For example, in Ebola, viruses often infect bats and transmit to humans when they use infected animal meat.

Zika virus was first discovered in Rhesus monkeys.

Zika is often found mainly in monkeys. And humans are implicated in mosquito bites. To combat the host's immune system, Zika virus will develop and change genomes continuously.

The problem started when the virus moved to a new geographic area and passed on to a population that had never been infected before. In this case, pregnant women are at particularly high risk. Any pathogen that is able to cross the placenta will also seriously affect the fetal immune system and cause permanent damage.

Some reports suggest that the involvement of pesticides has caused mosquitoes to mutate and combine with other agents to make the Zika virus more dangerous.

However, this is a hypothesis that still has no concrete proof. Because pesticides have been used by Argentinians before 2000 and have been tested extensively on mammalian toxicity before being put into use.

Besides, they are also used around the world to control mosquitoes, not only in Argentina and Brazil. But only in this area, Zika exploded into a major epidemic.

But we cannot deny the fact that increasing the use of pesticides and viral infections is a consequence of global trends. Over the past two decades, viruses such as Zika and yellow fever have spread globally at an incredibly fast pace.

People are primarily responsible for this issue. The increase in tourism activity between continents, the population has increased rapidly and eventually the rise in temperature has created excellent living conditions for mosquitoes. And so, the diseases they brought have spread to the point of being nearly impossible to control.

The crowded urban environment along with a series of stagnant water ponds has resulted in record numbers of mosquitoes and insect pests.

Scientists have been involved in the study of anti-Zika vaccines. However, in order to put a vaccine into practice, they need to undergo rigorous government testing. Usually, it takes 10 to 20 years to complete a vaccine. In an emergency, this process can be reduced to 2-4 years.

Global warming will be the main cause for the future, many infectious diseases have the ability to erupt and change extremely abnormally.

Previously cold geographic areas have now begun to appear with encephalitis, dengue, and West Nile viruses. Similarly, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia are experiencing an unusual increase in typhoid and cholera due to poor sanitation, stagnant water ponds and climate change.