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Showing posts from October, 2016

Why we never noticed ZIKA?- Indian Research and Development

“Zika had 'disappeared' because it wasn’t worth worrying about and people weren’t paying attention.” Zika virus was first identified in 1947 in a sentinel monkey that was being used to monitor for the presence of yellow fever virus in the Zika Forest of Uganda. At this time cell lines were not available for studying viruses, so serum from the febrile monkey was inoculated intra-cerebrally into mice. All the mice became sick, and the virus isolated from their brains was called Zika virus. The same virus was subsequently isolated from Aedes africanus mosquitoes in the Zika forest. In 1950, when some serological studies were being done, it was found that we humans developed antibodies against this virus. Further studies revealed evidence of infection in other African countries, including Uganda, Tanzania, Egypt, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, and Gabon, as well as Asia (India, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia). The virus circulating in Brazil is