Zika virus in Pune What are the symptoms ?
Infectious disease specialist Dr. Jatin Ahuja provides an overview of the virus.
The Zika virus has resurfaced in western India, with a Pune-based doctor and his teenage daughter testing positive for the infection, marking the first two cases in the city this year. Last year, cases were identified in Mumbai. Mosquitoes are carriers, and they rapidly breed with the rains, increasing the risk of infection.
The Zika virus is a mosquito-borne pathogen belonging to the flavivirus family, which also includes dengue and yellow fever viruses. It primarily spreads through the bite of infected Aedes mosquitoes, particularly Aedes aegypti. Not all mosquitoes carry the Zika virus, and not every person bitten by an infected mosquito will get Zika, according to Dr. Jatin Ahuja, Senior Consultant in Infectious Diseases at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi.
Zika virus is a mosquito-borne virus that was first identified in the Zika Forest of Uganda in 1947. It remained relatively obscure until it gained global attention in 2015 due to a significant outbreak in the Americas, particularly in Brazil. The outbreak was associated with an increase in babies born with microcephaly, a serious birth defect where babies are born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains. This proved that pregnant women were at high risk and the virus could affect their offspring.
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