An overview of the current medical literature on Zika virus

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

An overview of the current medical literature on Zika virus Fria Hossein 1 Received: 30 April 2020 / Accepted: 28 August 2020 # International Union for Pure and Applied Biophysics (IUPAB) and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract Zika virus is a member of the family of Flaviviridae, which is primarily spread to humans by mosquito bites. It has been linked to microcephaly in neonates, and as such, it poses a significant risk to human pregnancy. Zika virus infection is also implicated in other severe neurological disorders such as Guillain-Barre syndrome. There is currently no vaccine available to treat Zika virus disease, and as such, it represents a serious challenge to public health. Antigenic similarities between Zika and dengue can suggest artificially high infection rates of Zika within specific population groups. Here, we review recent literature and provide an update on the status of the Zika outbreak, including a description of available medical countermeasure options and current diagnosis methodology. Keywords Zika . Dengue . Flavivirus . Mosquitos . Microcephaly . Aedes aegypti

Introduction Zika virus is able to infect humans and other mammals and was first discovered in the Uganda Zika Forest in 1947 (Dick 1952). Zika virus is a member of the family Flaviviridae and was first isolated from the blood of sentinel rhesus macaques in 1948 (Macnamara 1954). Zika antibody was first detected in humans in 1964 in Africa (Wikan and Smith 2016). It is challenging to detect Zika virus-specific antibodies because of their cross-reactivity to other related Flavivirus such as dengue and this is especially so in patients previously vaccinated against other flaviviruses (Cao-Lormeau et al. 2014). The first severe Zika outbreak was reported in Yap Island in 2007, where 73% of the population was infected with the Zika virus within 4 months (Zanluca et al. 2015). In 2013, there was a second major outbreak in French Polynesia (Malone et al. 2016). Since then the Zika virus has spread throughout the western hemisphere causing a massive epidemic in the continent of South America, with localised outbreaks in Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Paraguay, El Salvador, Columbia Southern United States, and Singapore (Culjat et al. 2016; Fontanet et al. 2016; Hoen et al. 2018; Kostyuchenko et al. 2016; * Fria Hossein [email protected] 1

School of Engineering, Nanotechnology and Integrated Bio-Engineering Centre (NIBEC), Ulster University, Shore Road, BT37 0QB Newtownabbey, United Kingdom

Parola and Musso 2020). The list of countries with an elevated risk of Zika infections is shown in Table 1. Zika virus infection of pregnant mothers has been shown to produce neurological defects in the foetus at a case rate of 7% (Simpson 1964). Zika virus infection can additionally cause congenital syndrome (congenital disabilities) in infants, which includes a spectrum of defects (Campos et al. 2015). Recent studies suggested that the Zika virus directly causes neuronal tissue damage (Kikuti