Zika, Chikungunya and Dengue Virus: Three diseases and the same mosquito

Abstract

Zika, Dengue and Chikungunya virus are arthropod-borne Flavivirus and are transmitted to humans primarily via the bite of an infected Aedes aegypti mosquito. Dengue virus is the most prevalent arthro-pod-borne viral disease in tropical countries and cause more than 50 million cases every day. In 2013, the Chikungunya virus spreads to the Caribbean and America and caused an epidemic in this continent. The Zika virus was discovered in Uganda in 1947 and is the responsible of the epidemic in the Americas actually. Signs and symptoms are similar in all three infections: fever, headache, rash, arthralgia, conjunc-tivitis nonpurulent. The Zika virus causes frequent complications such as Guillain-Barré syndrome and the microcephaly may be associated with infection during pregnancy. The diagnosis of Zika, Dengue and Chikungunya virus is definitively established via reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) or Serology.