Zika Virus

Zika virus infection, a mosquito-borne flavivirus that causes febrile illness associated with rash, has been rapidly emerging in the Western Hemisphere over the past few months. The virus was rarely identified until outbreaks occurred on Yap Island in the Federated States of Micronesia in 2007, Fresh Polynesia in 2013, and Easter Island in 2014 (Chen & Hamer, 2016). The virus was initially detected in Brazil in 2015, in the northeast, and was subsequently identified in other states and several South American countries, including Colombia, Ecuador, Suriname, Venezuela, French Guyana, and Paraguay. Local transmission has been documented in Central America in countries such as Panama, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala and in the Caribbean countries of Martinique, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti and Mexico (Chen & Hamer, 2016). Transmission of the virus has also been detected in travelers returning from infected regions to nonendemic countries, including United States, Canada, Japan, and Western Europe (Chen & Hamer, 2016). As of between January 01, 2015 to June 29, 2016 in the United State States there were no locally acquired mosquito-borne cases reported , with 934 travel- associated cases , 1 laboratory acquired case to a total of 935 cases. This included 13 sexual transmitted and 4 Guillain- Barre syndrome cases. With United State territories reporting 2,020 locally acquired cases, 6 travel- associated cases and 10 Guillain- Barre syndrome cases (CDC, 2016)