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Zika virus is a member of Flavivirus family

Zika virus is member of Flavivirus family and belongs to the Flavivirus genus like other flaviviruses Zika virus is an icosahedral enveloped single stranded RNA virus The lipid envelope is covered with dense projections that consist of a membrane and envelope glycoproteins First identified in Uganda in 1947 and it is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes which is also responsible for Dengue fever Yellow fever and Chikungunya virus A mosquito bites an infected person and then passes those viruses to other people it bites Zika virus is also a sexually transmitted and also it is transmitted from infected mother to her child Outbreaks affected mostly Latin American countries and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC currently lists the following countries as areas of active virus transmission Aruba Barbados Bolivia Bonaire Brazil Colombia Commonwealth of Puerto Rico US territory Costa Rica Cuba Curacao Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador French Guiana Guadeloupe Guatemala Guyana Haiti Honduras Jamaica Martinique Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Saint Martin Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Sint Maarten Suriname Trinidad and Tobago US Virgin Islands Venezuela American Samoa Fiji Kosrae Federated States of Micronesia Marshall Islands New Caledonia Samoa Tonga and Cape Verde The virus causes congenital birth defects especially microcephaly which is condition where the baby born with abnormally small head and undeveloped and damaged brain Zika has also been linked to Guillain Barre syndrome which is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system

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