About Zika virus

• Zika virus is a mosquito-borne virus transmitted by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
• The virus was first identified in 1947 in Uganda.
• It is close cousin of other other vector-borne diseases like Dengue, Chikungunya and Yellow Fever transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes .
• Zika virus is not contagious but it is mainly transmitted by daytime-active Aedes aegypti mosquitoes after it bites someone infected with the virus and transmit it by biting another human.
• There is no specific treatment or vaccine currently available. The best form of prevention is protection against mosquito bites and clearing stagnant water where mosquitoes breed.

• WHO’s announcement comes after no new cases were reported over two incubation periods of human-to-human transmission of Ebola virus, each of 21 days (Total 42 days) in Sierra Leone.
• Now, Sierra Leone’s neighbour Guinea is the only western African country still having few reported cases Ebola since the deadly outbreak began in December 2013.
• Earlier in May 2015, WHO had officially declared Liberia as first country to be Ebola-free.
• Since May 2014 after the first Ebola case was reported in Sierra Leone, total 8,704 people were infected with the deadly disease and around 3,589 have died due it, of them 221 are healthcare workers.

• The current Ebola outbreak is considered as the deadliest in history. It was initially centred on Guinea’s remote south-eastern region of Nzerekore in early 2013 and later had spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
• Liberia was worst hit among the western African nations in this outbreak. As per WHO estimates, the deadly epidemic has infected more than 28,600 people across the three hardest-hit West African nations and has claimed 11,300 lives since December 2013.

World Polio Day is observed annually across the world on 24 October. The day seeks to create awareness about the hazards of the crippling Polio disease.

• World Polio Day has been established by Rotary International to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk who had led the first team of researchers which had developed a vaccine against poliomyelitis.
• This development had led to widespread use of this inactivated poliovirus vaccine and subsequently use of the oral poliovirus, developed by Albert Sabin.
• It had led to the establishment of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in 1988 which has helped to reduce polio worldwide by 99%.

• Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease, which mainly affects young children below age of 5.
• Transmission: The virus is transmitted from person-to-person. It mainly spreads through the faecal-oral route (e.g. contaminated water or food).
• After entering body, it multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system and can cause paralysis.
• Symptoms: Initial symptoms include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck, and pain in the limbs. In some cases, it causes permanent paralysis.
• Treatment: There is no cure for polio, however it can only be prevented by immunization.