New guidelines for Zika virus 2016

Abstract

Zika virus has caused a self- limiting pyrexial illness across Africa and South East Asia for decades. Recently there has been a rapid spread of the Zika virus in South America. However, to date, the zika virus has not been found further south than Uganda in Africa.1 The vector species, Aedes aegypti, is common in South Africa especially in the eastern coastal plains but it may also be found inland. In urban areas, the mosquito breeds in small collections of water such as discarded tyres and buckets or the leaf axils of Strelitzia nicolae (banana tress). Aedes argypti is made up of 2 subspecies. The African subspecies tends not to bite humans and is probably less susceptible to Zika virus when compared to the American ones.