A REVIEW ON THE STATE OF ZIKA VIRUS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Background: Zika virus, a flavivirus primarily transmitted through bites of mosquito (Aedes aegypti), blood transfusion, sexual contact and motherto-child was named after Zika forest in Uganda where it was first isolated from a sentinel monkey in 1947. It is a positively sensed single stranded RNA virus (+ssRNA) of approximately 11000Kb in length, encoding three (3) structural and seven (7) non-structural proteins. The virus has spread across several countries of the world between 1947 and today. Between March 2015 and November 2016, about 500,000 to 1.5 million people have been reported infected with Zika virus in Brazil alone, resulting in several cases of microcephaly, severe brain and ocular malformations, abortions, Guillain-Barre syndrome and even deaths. Cases of Zika virus infections have also been documented in some African countries with resulting isolation and sequencing of several strains. In Nigeria however, the first case of Zika virus was reported as far back as 1954 in the Eastern part of the country during a research on Yellow fever. Zika virus mutant strains might have evolved with corresponding effects on man due to continuous environmental changes and human factors worldwide. Aim: This study was aimed at reviewing the state of Zika virus in Nigeria: past and present. Methods: Original research articles and reviews were searched on the NCBI, Research gate, PubMed and Google scholar using queries such as; Zika, epidemiology of Zika, pathogenesis of Zika and molecular characterization of Zika. Results: High points on virology, epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, prevention and management were pooled together and discussed. Conclusion: The knowledge gained from this paper will help understand the current state of Zika virus in Nigeria. Keywords: Nigeria, Zika, flavivirus, RNA, microcephaly, epidemiology, genomics.