UNC Researchers Discuss Zika Virus

Researchers at UNC gave a presentation about the Zika Virus Friday afternoon to talk about what we know and what we don’t know about the virus.

“People should not worry about there being Zika epidemics in the United States,” said Dr. Aravinda de Silva. “The ecology for these mosquitoes moving this virus from person to person simply doesn’t exist here.”

Recently the virus has made international news because of its rapid spread across Latin America and its link to birth defects in children whose mother had the virus during pregnancy.

Dr. Helen Lazear said people are infected mainly though mosquitoes, but can also get the disease through sexual contact.

“Being mosquito form distinguishes Zika from other recent emerging infectious diseases,” she said. “So unlike SARS or pandemic flu, Zika Virus is not generally a communicable disease.”

Although de Silva said people should not be concerned about an epidemic in the United States, there is still the possibility of people brining back the virus after traveling to infected areas.

This is especially concerning considering the upcoming 2016 Summer Olympics, which will be held in Brazil.

“The main group that I would be concerned about are pregnant women,” he said. “In adults and children, Zika is a mild febrile illness. It’s not pleasant, but it’s not a very serious infection.”

Those who are infected with Zika Virus most commonly develop a rash or fever.

In North Carolina there have been five confirmed cases of the virus, with 153 reported across the US. All of these cases have come from travel or sexual transmission and not from local mosquitoes.

The CDC encourages people who come back from these locations to abstain from sex for three months to avoid spreading the disease. de Silva said there is still much we don’t know about the virus and the next step is to provide better testing.

“It’s fairly easy to diagnose infection in someone who is acutely sick,” he said. “But we also need tests to determine if someone has been exposed in the past and that’s what we’re focusing our efforts on, coming up with a diagnostic test.”

The CDC has said people, especially pregnant women, should be careful and take precaution to avoid mosquito bites when traveling to countries with infections.