HSPH : declared in Zika virus found to be circulating in Africa for decades

Chan School of Public Health fills in a gap in ZIKV's history by showing that it's been silently circulating in West Africa for the past two decades. The researchers concluded that ZIKV, though largely unreported, has been circulating in West Africa for the past two decades, demonstrating a previously unrecognized persistence in human populations. The real question was, 'What happened to it in Africa after it was first identified?' This paper goes back multiple decades and shows that it was always there."Kanki and colleagues have been conducting HIV/AIDS research in Africa for decades, so were well-positioned to investigate. To ensure that patients were accurately diagnosed, ZIKV IgM positive samples were also tested for dengue, another mosquito-borne virus in the flavivirus family. Over the next 50 years, just 14 confirmed cases of ZIKV were reported in Africa and Asia.

South Florida Zika virus traced to Caribbean

Watch to learn about the unique capabilities vaccinologists in the U.S. Army brought to the fight against Zika. U.S. ArmyWhen the Zika virus emerged as a global threat, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research drew on its deep expertise in protecting Soldiers against malaria, Ebola and other flaviviruses, to develop the ZPIV Vaccine in just six months. facebook twitter email Share More Videos 1:30 Staying safe from mosquitoes this summer Pause 1:28 New program encourages homeowners to go solar 1:30 Mosquito spraying explained using a Buffalo Turbine 3:04 Race for the Zika Vaccine: The Army Advantage 1:39 FPL closes in on license to expand Turkey Point but future still murky 0:52 King Tide takes park visitors by surprise 0:57 How noisy are the noises in South Florida? 1:26 Coast Guard rescues woman 35 miles south of Key West 0:58 How to fillet a lionfish 0:52 See the massive Mud Creek slide that's wiped out Highway 1 in Big Sur Share Video Video link: Select Embed code: Selectfacebookfacebook twittertwitter email When the Zika virus emerged as a global threat, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research drew on its deep expertise in protecting Soldiers against malaria, Ebola and other flaviviruses, to develop the ZPIV vaccine in just six months.


The difficulty arises because Zika virus is typically present at very low levels in patients and disappears quickly. These results appear only now, months after the peak of the outbreak, because sequencing Zika virus has proved to be challenging, particularly when done directly from patient samples. As a result, very few Zika genomes had been generated prior to this study, leaving researchers with little basis for understanding how the virus is spreading and evolving. In many of these regions, the virus circulated for months before local cases of infection were detected. These findings, revealed today in Nature in a paper led by Pardis Sabeti of the Broad Institute and Harvard University, arise from an analysis of 174 Zika virus genomes — including the largest collection of new Zika virus genomes to date — sequenced from patient and mosquito samples collected in 11 affected countries and territories.


collected by :Lucy William
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