How is the Zika Virus related to science?

[deleted-347596]

Please help me, it's for a project!

[donnahardy2]

Hi,

Welcome to science buddies.

Zika is an emerging disease caused by Zika virus that is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito It usually causes mild or no symptoms in adults, but is of concern because it is a neurotropic virus that has been associated with microcephaly in infants with with an autoimmune disease, Guillain-Barre syndrome, in adults.. The virus is an arbovirus belongs to the same family as West Nile virus, dengue, tick-borne encephalitus, and yellow fever.

Here are the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization websites on Zika that contain additional information.

http://www.cdc.gov/zika/about/index.html

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/zika/en/

Doing a science fair project on Zika would be challenging because if would be difficult to get approval from your local scientific review committee for working with the virus or or with humans infected with Zika. However, here is a link to project ideas and web pages from this website that should give you ideas for doing a Zika project:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... v=&s=virus

For example, perhaps you could do a computer survey similar to this flu virus project:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... #materials

Or, perhaps you could focus on the mosquito and develop a new method for controlling the Aedes mosquito that usually lives indoors and bites during the morning or evening. Maybe you could do a project and determine the best way to prevent mosquito bites.
I recommend reading through all of the information to help identify a project idea that you could do.

Please let us know if you need additional assistance.


Donna

[deleted-332001]

Going off of Donna's response, it would be a very interesting project if you could do computer modeling of Aedes mosquito control. This type of mosquito also spreads yellow fever, dengue fever, and Chikungya viruses, so it would have implications in infectious disease prevention.

Best regards,
Jen

[deleted-361738]

Zika virus also caused birth defects.Zika kills fetus. There were doubts at first that Zika, once thought to be a pretty harmless virus, could actually be causing birth defects. But now studies have shown the virus gets into the developing fetus's brain, killing brain cells, stopping it from growing and, often, killing the fetus. And it seems to do so at all stages of pregnancy, not just in the first trimester, as most other viruses do.