Writing a paper about a complex issue such as the Zika virus can be a challenging enterprise, but the model essay presented below provides some useful guidance concerning how to get started, including developing an appropriate thesis, writing an outline and locating relevant content from reliable and legitimate sources. Writing an abstract, introduction and conclusion becomes easier once the preliminary research for the body of the essay is completed.

Topics:

The Effects of Zika virus on pregnant women

How the Zika virus is spread from country to country

Identifying opportunities to reduce Zika virus infections

Will the Zika virus become a pandemic?

Titles:

The Epidemiology of the Zika Virus

The Origins and Transmission of the Zika Virus

The Zika Virus:  Who is at Risk and What Can be Done?

Outline:

I.  Introduction

II.  Review and Discussion

     A.  Background and overview

     B.  Recent and current trends in Zika virus infections

     C.  What can be done to reduce the risk of Zika virus infections

III.  Conclusion

 

Recent and Current Trends in Global Zika Virus Infections

 

Abstract

First serendipitously identified in 1947 in Uganda through monitoring for yellow fever, the primarily mosquito-borne Zika virus has since become a global public health threat, with outbreaks occurred in the far corners of the world including the Island of Yap as well as heavily populated areas such as Brazil. Although the symptoms of the Zika virus are relatively mild for most people, pregnant women are at risk due to a growing body of scientific evidence that indicates a link with microcephaly and a trigger for Guillain-Barre syndrome. This evidence resulted in the World Health Organization classifying the Zika virus as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in early 2016, and there have been outbreaks reported in 20 countries and territories since active surveillance began in earnest. This essay provides a brief description of the Zika virus and an analysis of recent and current trends in global Zika virus infections. The paper concludes with a summary of the research and important findings concerning this growing global public health threat.

Introduction

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that members of the Flaviviridae family are all grouped in a single genus, flavivirus (Flaviviridae, 2016). These mosquito-borne pathogens include yellow fever, West Nile viruses, Dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, and Zika virus, all of which can infect humans, and all of which can cause large-scale illnesses and even deaths (Flaviviridae, 2016). At present, there is no known vaccine or medicine for treating the Zika virus and there have been reports of Zika virus outbreaks all over the world, including most especially Africa and Asia but even on remote islands and the continental United States in Miami-Dade County, Florida as well (Questions about Zika, 2016). In order to determine the facts about the Zika virus, this paper provides a brief description of the Zika virus and risk factors, followed by an analysis of recent and current trends in global Zika virus infections. Finally, a summary of the research and important findings concerning this mounting global public health threat are provided in the conclusion.

Background and overview

The Zika virus is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that was first identified in Uganda from a single captive sentinel rhesus monkey in 1947 by scientists who were monitoring for yellow fever (Kindhauser & Allen, 2016). In a seminal study conducted by Dick, Kitchen and Haddow (1952), the first report of a Zika virus isolation from a rhesus monkey was confirmed in 1947 and a second isolation was confirmed in 1948, with the virus being named for the locality in which these isolations were made. Research at this time also confirmed that the Zika virus was not related to yellow fever (Dick et al., 1952).

There were subsequently numerous reports of Zika virus antibody detections in the region during...
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During the period from the early 1960s through the 1980s, there were increasing reports of Zika virus infections in humans; these reports, though, were largely restricted to Africa and Asia and were only thought to cause relatively mild symptoms (Kindhauser & Allen, 2016). In 2007, the first major Zika virus outbreak in humans occurred on the Federated States of Micronesia on the island of Yap and epidemiologists tracked the virus’s progress as it traveled inexorably across the Pacific in a southeasterly direction (Kindhauser & Allen, 2016). Since that time, there have been additional reports of Zika virus infections in other countries and territories and these disturbing trends are discussed further below.

Recent and current trends in Zika virus infections

Between 2013 and 2014, researchers investigating a new outbreak of the Zika virus in French Polynesia retrospectively identified a connection between Zika infections and Guillain-Barre syndrome which can cause microcephaly in pregnant women, a condition that results in a disproportionately small head compared to the body in newborns (Kindhauser & Allen, 2016). In mid-2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported locally transmitted infections in Brazil and public health authorities there also confirmed a link between Zika virus infections and Guillain-Barre syndrome in adults, but there remained a lack of solid scientific evidence to confirm this causal link at this time (Kindhauser & Allen, 2016).

By early 2016, though, increasing reports of Zika infections from across the globe and a growing body of scientific evidence concerning the link with microcephaly and as a trigger for Guillain-Barre syndrome compelled the WHO to classify the Zika virus as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) (Kindhauser & Allen, 2016). In fact, by the end of February 2016, around half a million people in the Americas alone had been infected by the Zika virus (Lessler & Ott, 2016). Some authorities believe that global warming is facilitating the breeding of Zika virus carrying mosquitoes, and additional species may be implicated in its transmission (Late, 2016).

Although the precise link between the Zika virus and Guillain-Barre syndrome remains unclear, the higher incidence rates for this disorder in Zika virus endemic regions have resulted in increased surveillance by epidemiologists (Kandel & Lamichhane, 2016). The severity of the effects of the Zika virus in some individuals underscores the overarching need to provide pregnant women with protections as well as the need to ensure that blood supplies are protected, especially in regions where there is a known risk as well as in countries where there are large numbers of consumers returning from travel to countries where there are known Zika virus outbreaks (Lessler & Ott, 2016).

Since the classification by the WHO of the Zika virus as a PHEIC in February 2016, more than 20 countries and territories around the world, including the Americas, have reported outbreaks of the Zika virus, with one outbreak in Cabo Verde in western Africa numbering in the thousands (Kindhauser & Allen, 2016). According to Costello and Dau (2016), by May 5, 2016, there had been reports of microcephaly or other disorders that were assumed to be associated with the Zika virus infections in the following countries and territories:

Brazil (1271 cases);
Cabo Verde (3 cases);
Colombia (7 cases);
French Polynesia (8 cases);
Martinique (2 cases) and,
Panama (4 cases).

Beyond the foregoing, there have also been some recent updates to these Zika virus cases, and a summary of the most recent surveillance data from WHO is provided in Table 1 below.

Table 1

Situation report:   Zika virus, Microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome as of March 10, 2017

Category
Update

Countries, territories and subnational areas reporting vector-borne Zika virus (ZIKV) infections for the first time since February 1, 2017
None

Countries and territories reporting microcephaly and other central nervous system malformations potentially associated…