Africa: Senegalese Help Brazil Fight the Zika Virus

http://allafrica.com/stories/201601261297.html

Senegalese researchers who helped contain the Ebola epidemic in West Africa are training Brazilians on how to tackle the Zika virus. They have brought along a mobile lab which quickly detects the virus.

Senegalese researcher Amadou Alpha Sall brought with him to Brazil a small team and a lab which fits into a bag. He wants to help Brazilians defeat the current epidemic of mosquito-borne Zika
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The head of the Senegalese team believes that the most efficient way to control the epidemic is to quickly identify and isolate infected patients. Zanotto agrees: “People think controlling a vector means killing the mosquito. But controlling a vector means controlling a person in the viremic stage, because it is the patient who infects the mosquito. Once infected, the patient himself turns into a repository for the virus.”

Zika originated in Africa (note: it was extracted from a monkey). But until 2007, it infected only monkeys and didn’t harm humans. Scientists believe that the virus adapted (note: synthetic virologists tinkered) as it spread throughout the continents, becoming more dangerous for humans.

Speculative potential strains/variants:

• Zika virus (original 1947)
• Zika virus (cases 2007)
• Zika virus (French Polynesia 2013)
• Zika virus (Brazil 2015)