Page 33 - 인천외고교지 2017 E-BOOK-최종.indd

Zenith 2016

Disease without Vaccine? 'Zika Virus'

Nowadays, with the people's huge interest on Rio 2016 Olympics, one thing became a severe problem
that we must consider seriously; the Zika Virus. The reason why we must pay big attention to the Zika

Virus is because it's a disease which is especially spread mostly in South America, where the olympics
are held.
Before 2015, Zika virus infection was found in Africa, South-East Asia, and few islands in Pacific
Ocean. After that in May 2015, it was first reported in Brazil, then gradually spread widely to other
countries. Therefore in just in two months of 2016, 44 countries (including 33 countries from Central and
South America, eight countries from Oceania, two countries from Asia and one country from Africa, etc)
had new infected patients of Zika virus. In South Korea, the first infected patient was found on March

22nd 2016, and second patient on April 27th, 2016.
The Zika virus is mostly transmitted through the bites of infected mosquitos such as Aedes aegypti
and Aedes albopictus, which are also the same mosquitos that spread dengue and chikungunya viruses.
They have the common characteristic of living near people. Also, Zika can be transmitted through sexual
transmission. Until two months after recovery, the virus can be found in semen.The symptoms of Zika
don't appear in 80% of infected people. The symptoms appear slowly when three to seven days pass
after being bitten by the infected mosquitoes. The maximum incubation period is two weeks. The main
symptoms are fever, rash, arthralgia and hyperemia. Besides, myalgia, eye pain, headache, and vomiting
can be included, too. With the spread of Zika virus, many severe fetal brain defects such as microcephaly

are occurring in a lot of infants due to the infection of pregnant women. Microcephaly is a disease that
harms babies' brain growth, making infants to have very small heads. It can also lead to intellectual
disability and even to death. Therefore pregnant women should take more attention to Zika virus.
However, there are many preventions for avoiding Zika virus. The Korea Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention suggests not to travel to the areas with Zika virus such as Maldives, Mexico or the
Philippines, etc. (For more lists of countries with Zika; go to www.cdc.go.kr) If you are traveling to those

33