THE ZIKA VIRUS YOUR NEED-TOKNOW GUIDE
The epidemic isn’t going away, so if you’re planning on travelling to high-risk parts of the world, here’s how to protect yourself
STATUS UPDATE
Compiled by Charlotte Haigh
PROFESSOR JIMMY WHITWORTH is professor of International Public Health at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Exactly what is Zika?
It’s an illness caused by a flavivirus, similar to the dengue, yellow fever and West Nile viruses, all of which are spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Most people will have little or no symptoms (only around one in five notices mild symptoms, such as a slight fever and headaches), but the telltale sign is an itchy rash, although that could have other causes.
There’s no specific treatment for Zika – it’s just a question of managing symptoms, if necessary. Also, the virus can’t be contracted from mosquitos in the UK as we don’t have the type that carries it. But more than 60 countries worldwide have reported cases, most of them in South and Central America, the Caribbean and South-East Asia, so you’re potentially at risk if you travel to any of these areas. To date, only a small number of people have had the virus in the UK and, apart from one suspected case of sexual transmission from a traveller, all contracted it while they were abroad.