Zika Virus Net is the web resource for anyone interested in Zika virus. Zika virus (ZIKV) is an insect-borne virus, of the flavivirus genus, that is spread by Aedes mosquitoes. The most common symptoms of Zika virus disease (Zika) are fever, rash, joint pain, and red eye. The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting from several days to a week. Severe disease requiring hospitalization is uncommon. The symptoms of Zika are similar to those of dengue and chikungunya, which are diseases caused by other viruses spread by the same type of mosquitoes. Zika virus can be spread from a pregnant woman to her unborn baby. There have been reports of a serious birth defect of the brain called microcephaly and other poor pregnancy outcomes in babies of mothers who were infected with Zika virus while pregnant. On February 1st, 2016, the WHO declared the Zika outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). As of August 2017 the number of new Zika virus cases in the Americas had fallen dramatically.

The objectives of Zika Virus Net are to be the public and professional information resource for zika fever and to serve as a network in the exchange of information and news related to zika.

• Advances from Animal Research: AIDS and Zika Vaccines Update - Speaking of Research
  Mon, 19 Apr 2021 15:04 GMT
• A systematic examination of international funding flows for Ebola virus and Zika virus outbreaks 2014– 2019: donors, recipients and funding purposes - World - ReliefWeb
  Wed, 14 Apr 2021 08:25 GMT
• $1.9 million award could keep Zika virus at bay - EurekAlert
  Wed, 14 Apr 2021 09:32 GMT
• Successful Zika vaccine in preclinical studies: The vaccine is generated from a novel platform technology - Science Daily
  Thu, 01 Apr 2021 07:00 GMT
• Zika virus helps destroy deadly brain cancer in mice | The Source - Washington University in St. Louis Newsroom
  Wed, 24 Mar 2021 07:00 GMT
• Health Alert: Peruvian Ministry of Health warns of increased cases of Zika, dengue, and chikungunya (March 25, 2021) | US Embassy in Peru - US Embassy in Peru - USEmbassy.gov
  Fri, 26 Mar 2021 07:00 GMT
• Source of Zika neurodevelopmental defects - Science Daily
  Tue, 06 Apr 2021 07:00 GMT
• Phase I Trial Of An Adenovirus Vector Vaccine for Zika Virus Shows High Immunogenicity And Safety - Infectious Disease Advisor
  Tue, 13 Apr 2021 15:25 GMT
• Study discovers how microcephaly and blindness may develop in Zika-infected fetuses - News-Medical.Net
  Tue, 06 Apr 2021 07:00 GMT
• What happened to… Zika virus - Global News
  Thu, 08 Apr 2021 07:00 GMT
• Editorial: Pass Jack Zika's bill on childcare | Opinion | bendbulletin.com - The Bulletin
  Thu, 15 Apr 2021 04:15 GMT
• Billions spent on coronavirus fight, but what happens next? - Minneapolis Star Tribune
  Mon, 19 Apr 2021 14:05 GMT
• Zika Virus Testing Market 2021: Detailed Analysis of Current and Future Industry Analysis till 2028 and Major Players are Luminex Corporation,NecLife – FLA News - FLA News
  Mon, 19 Apr 2021 10:08 GMT
• 750 million of the first genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida | TheHill - The Hill
  Mon, 19 Apr 2021 17:16 GMT
• Zika Virus Market 2021 Global Outlook – Inovio Pharmaceuticals and GeneOne Life Sciences, Sanofi, Cerus, Intrexon, GlaxoSmithKline – KSU | The Sentinel Newspaper - KSU | The Sentinel Newspaper
  Mon, 19 Apr 2021 08:26 GMT

• PRO/AH/EDR> Zika virus (01): Americas, research, observations
  Fri, 12 Feb 2021 10:32:29 -0500
  Zika virus -- United States
  Domesticating Zika virus
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  Why hasn't Zika virus (ZIKV) disease caused as much devastation in Africa, its continent of origin, as it has in the Americas? Outside of Africa, this flavivirus is transmitted by a ubiquitous mosquito subspecies, _Aedes aegypti aegypti_, which emerged from the African forerunner subspecies _Aedes aegypti formosus_ and acquired a preference for human blood and a peridomestic lifestyle. Now, this subspecies colonizes many intertropical cities,

• Language delay was associated with a smaller head circumference at birth in asymptomatic infants prenatally exposed to the Zika virus Mon, 19 Apr 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  CONCLUSION: Language delay was associated with a smaller head circumference at birth in infants prenatally exposed to the Zika virus and born asymptomatic. This may indicate future learning difficulties.
• Diagnostic performance of anti-Zika virus IgM, IgAM and IgG ELISAs during co-circulation of Zika, dengue, and chikungunya viruses in Brazil and Venezuela Mon, 19 Apr 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our findings exemplify the challenges of the assessment of test performance for ZIKV serological tests in the real-world setting, during co-circulation of DENV, ZIKV, and CHIKV. However, we can also demonstrate that the IgAM immunoassay exhibits superior sensitivity to detect ZIKV RT-PCR confirmed infections compared to IgG and IgM immunoassays. The IgAM assay also proves to be promising for detection of anti-ZIKV seroconversions in sequential samples, both in ZIKV...
• The dinucleotide composition of the Zika virus genome is shaped by conflicting evolutionary pressures in mammalian hosts and mosquito vectors Mon, 19 Apr 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  Most vertebrate RNA viruses show pervasive suppression of CpG and UpA dinucleotides, closely resembling the dinucleotide composition of host cell transcriptomes. In contrast, CpG suppression is absent in both invertebrate mRNA and RNA viruses that exclusively infect arthropods. Arthropod-borne (arbo) viruses are transmitted between vertebrate hosts by invertebrate vectors and thus encounter potentially conflicting evolutionary pressures in the different cytoplasmic environments. Using a newly...
• Complexities of Zika Diagnosis and Evaluation in a U.S. Congenital Zika Program Mon, 19 Apr 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  The objective of the study was to describe the complexity of diagnosis and evaluation of Zika-exposed pregnant women/fetuses and infants in a U.S. Congenital Zika Program. Pregnant women/fetuses and/or infants referred for clinical evaluation to the Congenital Zika Program at Children's National (Washington, DC) from January 2016 to June 2018 were included. We recorded the timing of maternal Zika-virus (ZIKV) exposure and ZIKV laboratory testing results. Based on laboratory testing, cases were...
• Addressing COVID-19 vulnerabilities: How do we achieve global health security in an inequitable world Mon, 19 Apr 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  The spread of the serve acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes COVID-19, [WHO. (2019). Naming the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the virus that causes it. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/naming-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it] and is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic is another in a long line of Coronavirus outbreak - and unlikely to be the last. More than a year into the...
• Detection of a novel insect-specific flavivirus across ecologically diverse populations of Aedes aegypti on the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia Mon, 19 Apr 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  Background. Outbreaks of mosquito-borne arboviral diseases including dengue virus (DENV), Zika virus (ZIKV), yellow fever virus (YFV) and chikungunya virus (CHIKV) have recently occurred in the Caribbean. The geographical range of the principle vectors responsible for transmission, Aedes (Ae.) aegypti and Ae. albopictus is increasing and greater mosquito surveillance is needed in the Caribbean given international tourism is so prominent. The island of Saint Lucia has seen outbreaks of DENV and...
• Zika virus infection during pregnancy protects against secondary infection in the absence of CD8(+) cells Sat, 17 Apr 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  While T cell immunity is an important component of the immune response to Zika virus (ZIKV) infection generally, the efficacy of these responses during pregnancy remains unknown. Here, we tested the capacity of CD8 lymphocytes to protect from secondary challenge in four macaques, two of which were depleted of CD8^(+) cells prior to rechallenge with a heterologous ZIKV isolate. The initial challenge during pregnancy produced transcriptional signatures suggesting complex patterns of immune...
• Subgenomic flavivirus RNA (sfRNA) associated with Asian lineage Zika virus identified in three species of Ugandan bats (family Pteropodidae) Sat, 17 Apr 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  Serological cross-reactivity among flaviviruses makes determining the prior arbovirus exposure of animals challenging in areas where multiple flavivirus strains are circulating. We hypothesized that prior infection with ZIKV could be confirmed through the presence of subgenomic flavivirus RNA (sfRNA) of the 3' untranslated region (UTR), which persists in tissues due to XRN-1 stalling during RNA decay. We amplified ZIKV sfRNA but not NS5 from three experimentally-infected Jamaican fruit bats,...
• Defective viral genomes as therapeutic interfering particles against flavivirus infection in mammalian and mosquito hosts Sat, 17 Apr 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  Arthropod-borne viruses pose a major threat to global public health. Thus, innovative strategies for their control and prevention are urgently needed. Here, we exploit the natural capacity of viruses to generate defective viral genomes (DVGs) to their detriment. While DVGs have been described for most viruses, identifying which, if any, can be used as therapeutic agents remains a challenge. We present a combined experimental evolution and computational approach to triage DVG sequence space and...
• Generation of recombinant hyperimmune globulins from diverse B-cell repertoires Fri, 16 Apr 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  Plasma-derived polyclonal antibody therapeutics, such as intravenous immunoglobulin, have multiple drawbacks, including low potency, impurities, insufficient supply and batch-to-batch variation. Here we describe a microfluidics and molecular genomics strategy for capturing diverse mammalian antibody repertoires to create recombinant multivalent hyperimmune globulins. Our method generates of diverse mixtures of thousands of recombinant antibodies, enriched for specificity and activity against...