The Emerging Zika Pandemic and Bangladesh

Abstract

Zika virus infection is a recent explosive pandemic occurring throughout South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. It is potentially threatening the rest of the world, because there is no cure and no vaccination. World Health Organization (WHO) projected that the virus is likely to spread throughout most of the Americas by the end of the year. It is a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Zika virus is an arbovirus (transmitted by arthropod) originated in the Zika forest in Uganda and was discovered incidentally in a rhesus monkey in 1947 through a monitoring network of sylvatic yellow fever. It was subsequently identified in humans in 1952 in Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. Since the 1950s, it has been known to occur within a narrow equatorial belt from Africa to Asia.