Modern Medicine and Virus

Zika Virus The author of this report has been asked to summarize and recite the main points of two scholarly offerings that both relate to the Zika virus. One of those is a presentation that was given by Ms. Carter and the other is a scholarly article that pertains to the same. Items that will be covered include where the virus originated from, the type of mosquitos that carry the virus, the number of cases that have been seen in the United States and a few other things.

Of course, there will be a good amount of overlap between the presentation's facts and figures and what is seen from the scholarly article. While there is still a lot that is not known about the Zika virus, where it came from and what it can do, what is already known to this point is quite intriguing and scary. Analysis As noted in the introduction, one of the main sources of information for this article is the presentation that was given by Ms. Carter.

The Zika Virus seemingly has originated from the countries of Uganda, Brazil and parts of Southeast Asia. There are two types of mosquitos that are seemingly the most common carriers of the virus, those being aedes alhopictus and aedes aegypti. There have been approximately 220 cases in the United States. Those cases have appeared in Florida, Texas and Georgia, for the most part. There are a number of symptoms that are common when it comes to Zika and they include fatigue, fever, perspiration, rashes and nausea or vomiting.

However, some people are asymptomatic and show no outward or obvious symptoms that they are sick. Risk of birth defects that are extremely severe in nature are also common when it comes to the Zika virus. When it comes to the scholarly journal article sort of research and materials on the subject of Zika, there is even more information to perceive and take in. Indeed, a 2015 academic journal article written by some Frenchman reveal that Zika has actually been around for quite some time.

Indeed, it has been around for at least a decade per some limited exposure that was known about in Africa and Asia. Further, the virus is known to be related and similar to other insidious virsus such as dengue fever, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis and West Nile virus. The precursors and root viruses in question actually date back to the 1940's and the earliest known country with it present is Uganda ("Zika Virus Outbreaks", 2015).

The virus has been rather docile over the years as there was not really a harsh outbreak of the virus until 2013 and 2014 in the area of French Polynesia. That outbreak was different in that there was a clear linkage between the virus and the outbreak of Guillain-Barre syndrome and other auto-immune or neurological complications. The Americas were first hit with Zika starting in 2014 when the disease was detected in the South American country of Chile. The comparisons to much more established and widespread viruses like malaria are obvious.

While malaria has been much more lethal and over a much longer period of time, the corollaries and commonalities between malaria, Zika and other mosquito-borne viruses are impossible to miss. Just like with malaria, fighting Zika is all about deployment of proper and full laboratory resources, getting the proper.