Zika virus is one of many recently emerging arthropod-Zwrne viruses, or arboviruses, capable of causing human disease in North America. First identified in the Zika Forest of Uganda in 1947, Zika virus is a mosquito-borne flavivirus belonging to the same viral genus as the West Nile and the dengue viruses.[ Only a handful of human Zika virus disease cases had been recognized until 2007, when an outbreak Zika virus disease was reported in Yap State in the Federated States of Micro-nesia. From 2013 to 2014, Zika virus spread to other islands in the Pacific Ocean, and in 2015 local transmission was first reported in Brazil.3 Since then, Zika virus has spread throughout the region, and as of February 2016, local transmission has been reported in parts of South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean.3 Continued spread is expected throughout neighboring regions where certain Aedes species of mosquitoes are present. As of February 2016, no local transmission of Zika virus has been reported in the continental United States, but there have been imported travel-associated cases of Zika virus disease over the last few years.
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