Zika fever

Also known as Zika virus disease, Zika

infectious arboviral disease

AI overview

Zika fever is an infectious disease spread by mosquitoes that causes symptoms like fever, rash, and joint pain in infected people. It matters because infection during pregnancy can cause serious birth defects, particularly microcephaly (abnormally small head size) in newborns.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Image: Alexius Salvador Zika-Virus.jpg

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has cause: Zika virus
Commons category: Zika fever
symptoms and signs: headache
disease transmission process: vertically transmitted infection
exact match: www.orpha.net/ORDO/Orphanet_448237
health specialty: neonatology
on focus list of Wikimedia project: WikiProject Medicine
hashtag: ZikaFever
NCI Thesaurus ID: C128423
has natural reservoir: Aedes
minimal incubation period in humans: 2
maximal incubation period in humans: 10
possible treatment: symptomatic treatment

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Encyclopedic overview

Zika fever, also known as Zika virus disease or simply Zika, is an infectious disease caused by the Zika virus. Most cases have no symptoms, but when present they are usually mild and can resemble dengue fever. Symptoms may include fever, red eyes, joint pain, headache, and a maculopapular rash. Symptoms generally last less than seven days. It has not caused any reported deaths during the initial infection. Mother-to-child transmission during pregnancy can cause microcephaly and other brain malformations in some babies. Infections in adults have been linked to Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS).

Zika fever is mainly spread via the bite of mosquitoes of the Aedes type. It can also be sexually transmitted and potentially spread by blood transfusions. Infections in pregnant women can spread to the baby. Diagnosis is by testing the blood, urine, or saliva for the presence of the virus's RNA when the person is sick, or the blood for antibodies after symptoms are present more than a week.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Zika fever” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.