The Zika virus was first isolated in Uganda in 1947.
Since then it is arrived all over the world, including Europe.It’s spread by a mosquito, the Aedes Aegypti, and causes headaches, fever and sometimes skin rashes. Sometimes you do not even realize you are sick, accusing only a mild illness.
In pregnant women the virus passes from the blood to the placenta and from there to the fetus and prevent brain development. It’s for this reason that in all South and Central America and especially in Brazil, the center of the epidemia started in 2014, instances of child with microcephaly disease today increased exponentially.
The data is not sure since not all cases are documented, especially in poor rural areas of the country, but in February 2016 more than 5000 cases of microcephaly were under investigation from Health Ministry and 1270 were already confirmed as due to Zika.Microcephaly caused by this virus causes a 100% disability and gives convulsions that in many cases lead to death. Doctors however are not yet sure of the disease evolution since the first child with microcephaly due to Zika was born few month ago.
What is sure is that Zika is building a huge army of disabled, which probably will not reach the fifth year of life. Since there are no certain ways to prevent Zika, in absence of a vaccine that is not jet been discovered, in Brazil as in the rest of South America and even in the United States who have already documented the first case of infection, are starting big campaigns to kill mosquitoes, the first vehicle of spreading the virus, and to alert citizens to protect themselves by using insect repellents.Since the virus remains in blood for more than a year and has its influence on the fetus for all this time, the carnage microcephaly could arrive very quickly anywhere in the world.
