Zika tropical forest located in the region of 23 kilometers from Entebbe to Kampala, the Ugandan capital, is the place from where the virus is spreading throughout the American continent emerged.
It is a tropical forest of about 25 hectares of lush vegetation that houses all kinds of plants and animals, including 40 species of mosquitoes.
Nearly seven decades, these forests scientists discovered the virus that is on alert today much of Latin America.
"In this forest there are mosquitoes that transmit several diseases, including zika" said Julius Lutwama, the head of the Virus Research Institute in Uganda, the BBC virologist.
The females of this mosquito, Aedes aegypti whose name are the main transmitter of zika, dengue and chikungunya three threatening diseases, today, most countries in the region.
"But we know that these Aedes prefer to bite at sunrise and sunset," said the specialist.
At the time of the bite, these mosquitoes, originating in Africa, they inject their saliva, which can contain four types of diseases: zika, dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever.
"Transmission occurs only when a mosquito infected with any of these bites a person susceptible virus," said Dr. Jairo Andres Mendez Rico, PAHO, told the BBC.
The virus was identified in 1947 for the first time in Uganda, specifically in the forests of Zika. It was discovered in a Rhesus monkey when a study of the transmission of yellow fever in the jungle was performed.
Serological analysis confirmed infection in humans in Uganda and Tanzania in 1952, but it was in 1968 that the virus was isolated in samples from people in Nigeria.
In 2007 the infection was recorded on the island of Yap, part of Micronesia in the Pacific Ocean. It was the first time the virus outside its original geographic area detected: Africa and Asia.
Zika virus was first detected in the Americas in February 2014 by the Chilean authorities that confirmed the first case in Easter Island.
In May 2015 Zika virus appeared in Brazil, spreading rapidly throughout Latin America, causing a large outbreak in several countries in the region.
In Brazil they have reported some cases of microcephaly t3,900 and 49 deaths of babies with birth defects, of which five have been able to verify the relationship with the disease.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Zika virus was "expands explosively" in Latin America.
"Recent outbreaks of zika in various regions of the world demonstrate the potential of this virus to spread through the territories where Aedes aegypti is," said WHO.
Langganan:
Posting Komentar
(
Atom
)
0 comments:
Posting Komentar