Flaviviruses and where the Zika virus fits in: An overview

ADRIAN DIAZ

Zika Virus Biology, Transmission, and Pathways

Academic Press - Elsevier

Año: 2021; p. 1 - 16

Flaviviruses originated around 120,000 years ago in Africa and then dispersed globally through human migration and animal trade.Mosquito-borne and tick-borne flaviviruses are the most important flaviviruses from a public health perspective. They cause thousands of human deaths and economic loss annually around the globe.The global burden of flaviviruses is based their nature to cause severe diseases such as hemorrhagic fever, polyarthritis, neuroinvasive diseases (encephalomyelitis), and hepatitis, among others.Flavivirus infection in humans is an acute self-limited infection controlled by both native and adapted immune system.Antibody response is a neutralizing and permanent mechanism that will control further infections.Deforestation, urbanization, massive human transportation, animal trade, and climatic changes are some of the factors that modify our environment and biological communities of arbovirus vectors and hosts promoting the emergence of flavivirus diseases.