A New Zika Threat. Here’s What You Need to Know
Local transmission in Florida suggests the virus could eventually become endemic to parts of the mainland U.S.
Zika Virus: What You Need to Know in Two Minutes
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Now that the Zika virus appears to have been transmitted within the mainland U.S. for the first time, here’s a quick primer.
It’s a virus that makes about one in five infected people sick with rash, fever, joint pain, or pink eye and has been linked to the birth defect microcephaly. Microcephaly is a neurological condition in which a newborn child’s head is significantly smaller than normal, usually the result of abnormal brain development. Zika can also cause the muscle-weakening disease Guillain-Barré syndrome in adults. Brazil, which became the nexus of Zika cases in May 2015, reported a 20-fold increase in the incidence of microcephaly from 2010.