29 January 2016
The Zika virus, which has been linked to thousands of babies being born
with underdeveloped brains in Brazil, was discovered in a forest in the
East African state of Uganda seven decades ago. BBC Africa's Catherine
Byaruhanga visited the forest.
The Zika forest is not well known in Uganda, and most people will be
hard-pushed to tell you where it is. The word itself means overgrown in
the local Luganda language.
There is dense vegetation, a wide range of trees and lots of small
animals. The only people you are likely to meet here are the
forest-keeper and his family. They live in a small house made of
corrugated iron sheets.
The virus was discovered in the forest - then a hub of scientific
research in East Africa - in 1947 by accident by Ugandan, American and
European scientists working on another viral disease, Yellow Fever.
While testing monkeys in the forest the scientists, whose research had
been funded for a decade by the Rockefeller Foundation, came across a
new microorganism, which they named Zika.
- Spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also carries Dengue Fever and Yellow Fever
- First discovered in Uganda in 1947 but now spreading in Latin America
- Scientists say there is growing evidence of a link to microcephaly, that leads to babies being born with small heads
- Can lead to fever and a rash but most people show no symptoms, and there is no known cure
- Only way to fight Zika is to clear stagnant water where mosquitoes breed, and protect against mosquito bites
29 January 2016