Zika virus infection, Philippines, 2012

Abstract

Zika virus (ZIKV), a mosquitoborne flavivirus, was first isolated from a rhesus monkey in Uganda in 1947 (1). This positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus (family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus) has a 10,794-nt genome and is most closely related to Spondweni virus (2,3). Phylogenetic analyses have revealed 2 major lineages: Asian and African (2–4).

The first human infection with ZIKV was reported in Nigeria in 1954 (5). The virus caused only sporadic infections until 2007, when a large outbreak occurred on Yap, an island in the Federated States of Micronesia (6). In October 2013, ZIKV was detected in French Polynesia; since then, >400 laboratory-confirmed cases have been reported (7). ZIKV has spread across the South Pacific, and autochthonous cases have been reported in New Caledonia, Easter Island, and the Cook Islands. Several cases of ZIKV infections have been reported in travelers to Southeast Asia (4,8) and French Polynesia (3,7).