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Let’s Talk Trash!
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Let’s Talk HEALTH! Those Pesky Mosquitoes!
WHY IS IT CALLED THE ZIKA VIRUS? In April 2007, an outbreak of illness characterized by rash, arthralgia, and conjunctivitis was reported on Yap Island in the Federated States of Micronesia. Serum samples from patients in the acute phase of illness contained RNA of Zika virus (ZIKV), a flavivirus in the same family as yellow fever, dengue, West Nile, and Japanese encephalitis viruses. ZIKV has spread outside its usual geographic range. Sixty years earlier, on April 18, 1947, fever developed in a rhesus monkey (see page 11) that had been placed in a cage on a tree platform in the Zika Forest of Uganda. The monkey, Rhesus 766, was a sentinel animal in the Rockefeller Foundation’s program for research on jungle yellow fever. Two days later, Rhesus 766, still febrile , was brought to the Foundation’s laboratory at Entebbe and its serum was inoculated into mice. After 10 days all mice that were inoculated intracerebrally were sick, and a filterable transmissible agent, later named Zika virus, was isolated from the mouse brains. In early 1948, ZIKV was also isolated from Aedes africanus mosquitoes trapped in the same forest. Serologic studies indicated that humans could also be infected. Transmission of ZIKV by artificially fed Ae. aegypti mosquitoes to mice and a monkey in a laboratory was reported in 1956.
The Zika virus is transmitted to people primarily through the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito (Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus). These mosquitoes typically lay eggs in and near standing water in things like buckets, bowls, animal dishes, flower pots and vases. They prefer to bite people, and live indoors and outdoors near people. Mosquitoes that spread virusus called, chikungunya, dengue, and Zika are aggressive daytime biters, but they can also bite at night. Mosquitoes become infected when they feed on a person already infected with the virus. Infected mosquitoes can then spread the virus to other people through bites.
WHEREdidthe “ZIKA”VIRUS ComeFrom?
DEFINITIONS
yellow fever, dengue, various types of encephalitis, and hepatitis C. febrile - adjective having or showing the symptoms of a fever.
flavirirus- noun: flavivirus; plural noun: flaviviruses - any of a group of RNA viruses, mostly having arthropod vectors, that cause a number of serious human diseases including
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