Rapid spread of emerging Zika virus in the Pacific area

Zika virus (ZIKV) is an emerging arthropod-borne virus (arbovirus) belonging to the family Flaviviridae and genus Flavivirus. ZIKV was first isolated from a monkey in the Zika forest of Uganda in 1947 [1Kirya BG A yellow fever epizootic in Zika Forest, Uganda, during 1972: Part 1: virus isolation and sentinel monkeys.Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1977; 71: 254-260Abstract Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (31) Google Scholar]. Subsequently, sporadic human infections were reported in Africa and Asia. In 2007, the first large documented ZIKV outbreak was reported from Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia [2Duffy MR Chen TH Hancock WT et al.Zika outbreak on Yap Island, Federated States of Micronesia.N Engl J Med.…