Search
Close
Search
Advanced Search
Search Menu
AI Discovery Assistant

Extract

After raging through Latin America and the Caribbean from 2015 to 2017, the epidemic of Zika virus disease (ZVD) in this region rapidly declined. Nevertheless, this large outbreak helped raise global awareness of the associated risk of Guillain–Barré syndrome, disabling teratogenic effects leading to the congenital Zika syndrome, and the potential for sexual transmission of Zika virus.1 The travel-related risk of Zika virus infection and potential spread to locations where ongoing viral transmission may occur have recently been summarized.2 New outbreaks of ZVD in Angola and India have highlighted the ongoing risk for travellers.

Zika in Angola

Investigations demonstrated evidence of local Zika virus transmission in Angola following molecular diagnosis of Zika virus in a returning French traveller, in a local inhabitant in December 2016 and in a stillborn baby in January 2017 (https://www.who.int/emergencies/zika-virus/situation-report/20-january-2017/en/; https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/OEW48-2504122017.pdf). Severe intrauterine growth restriction and microcephaly in a neonate born to an Angolan woman after travel to Portugal prompted a detailed evaluation that confirmed congenital Zika syndrome by polymerase chain reaction (PCR); phylogenetic analysis showed that this was an Asian strain of Zika3,4 and that the strain was introduced from Brazil between July 2015 and June 2016.4 Furthermore, increased reports of infants with microcephaly, mainly from Luanda Province but also sporadically from other provinces, led the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to declare a Zika travel alert for Angola (https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/alert/zika-virus-angola). An analysis of travel patterns in the southern African region and local environmental suitability (climate, presence of Aedes aegypti) suggested a potential for exportation via travellers to other parts of Africa and local transmission of Zika virus. A high potential during the Southern Hemisphere summer was predicted for Windhoek, Namibia; Maputo, Mozambique; Durban, South Africa; Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo; and during the Northern Hemisphere summer for Nairobi, Kenya.5

Issue Section:
Perspective
You do not currently have access to this article.
Download all slides