The Zika Virus is a virus that is mainly prevalent right now in South America. It’s thought to be spread mainly by the Aedes aegypti (Yellow Fever) mosquito, but also partially by the Aedes albopictus (Asian Tiger) mosquito.
The symptoms of this virus are mild, including headache, joint pain, eye pain, muscle pain, itching/rash, and fever, and only 1 in 10 people affected experience any noticeable symptoms at all. Even if they do, the symptoms go away within 2-7 days, and after you contract it once you are immune to contracting it again. Compared to the other, seemingly more serious diseases that the mosquitoes who carry it spread (dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever), the Zika Virus is relatively mild. So why is the world making such a big deal about it now?
The Zika Virus has been connected to an outbreak of Microcephaly in newborns, with the child usually being born with an unnaturally small head and having impaired intellectual performance. When a pregnant woman contracts the Zika Virus her child is usually born with Microcephaly. Women in affected countries, mainly Brazil, are being advised to wait to become pregnant for a few months or even years until more information is found about the virus, and women in other counties are being advised to postpone any travel to these countries.
Perhaps why no one has made a big deal about the virus before now is because in the past, it has been contained to the small countries it had been in for a long time, where most everyone was already immune.
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