Zika virus conspiracy

I couldn't resist this one because it's typical hype about a new disease.

Zika (a Forest in Uganda) is a Flaviviridae virus of the Flavivirus genus of viruses that's transmitted by the female Aedes mosquito (why is it always the female?). It has a postive-sense RNA genome that can be translated into viral proteins (that means it very infectious). It's related to dengue and yellow fever as well as West Nile virus. Mosquitoes transmit all these diseases. Most of these diseases were in Africa but ended up in Asia and South America because of easy transportation and the fact that the symptoms are mild. Most people don't even realize they've been infected.

The Aedes aegyph mosquito is active during the daytime. As with most mosquito carried diseases it is transferred to the victim when the mosquito feeds on blood to lay eggs. That's what the female mosquito does and this insidious practice is what carries the infection from victim to victim. The virus doesn't affect the mosquito. There are other mosquito species that can carry this virus, and the disease has been spread over many countries and continents. This makes it a crisis.

The only reason that Zika became a big issue is the fact that it causes microcephaly (small brain) a rare genetic condition in newborns delivered by women who had been infected. This really became a crisis when it was found that more of these abnormal births were occurring in South American countries like Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic. The really scary part of this is that this can happen throughout a pregnancy. Also, the virus is more widespread than first thought.

As soon as this connection between Zika and microcephaly became known the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued travel warning to pregnant women wishing to go to these locations where mosquitoes are rampant. The crisis ramped up a notch when it was discovered that an infected man transmitted the disease by sexual means. Transmission through blood transfusions has also been reported.

The main problem with this disease is that its symptoms are much like a flu or other mild virus, including headaches, fever, joint pain, conjunctivitis, and rash. These symptoms tend to be ignored, especially in countries that suffer from these types of viral diseases.

Of course, something like this generates conspiracy theories, the main one being that this new viral disease was caused by a research mistake. The theorists say that it was from experiments on dengue fever. However, this would involve a genetic change in the dengue fever virus, which doesn't happen easily. Most mosquito-transmitted diseases don't evolve very quickly. It should be easy to create a vaccine. As a matter of fact, this is already happening.

Thanks for reading.