Everything You Need To Know About Zika Virus …… DAILY BEAST
By Chioma Umeha What it Zika? Zika is a mosquito-borne illness named for the forest in Uganda where it originates. American and European scientists unintentionally discovered it in 1947 while studying a rhesus monkey for yellow fever. It did not appear in humans until 1952 when it was reported in Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. Is this the first outbreak of this scale? Yes. The first major outbreak of Zika occurred in Micronesia in 2007. There were just 49 confirmed cases and no hospitalizations. The next was 2013-2014 in French Polynesia, which resulted in a total of 19,000 suspected cases. Experts estimate that the number of those affected in the current outbreak has already passed 1 million. What happens to those infected? In one out of five cases, nothing. Only 20 percent of those infected show symptoms—the most common of which include fever, joint pain, red eyes, and a bumpy rash. The illness is generally mild, rarely fatal, and typically