Zica virus damaged babies

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http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/21/zika-virus-cdc-symptoms-mosquitos-united-states-pregnant-women-microcephaly

What is Zika?

Until recently, Zika was a rare tropical disease associated with mild symptoms. It takes its name from the Zika forest in Uganda where it was first identified by scientists in the 1940s. It is spread by mosquitoes and so is called an “arbovirus”, in the same family as West Nile and dengue fever.

Only a handful of Zika cases had ever been documented before 2013. But scientists began sounding the alarm after multiple outbreaks were discovered in Pacific islands and south-east Asia. Since then, Zika has spread to Brazil, where scientists estimate as many as 1.5 million people could be infected.

The large-scale outbreak in Brazil led virologists to link the virus to a birth defect called microcephaly, the medical term for abnormally small heads, for the first time. The World Health Organization said no deaths attributable to Zika have been reported.

Still, little is known about the virus, which has spread across the world in just over a couple of years. There is little published research on the disease, and it is clinically difficult to diagnose.