What is the Zika virus?

Everyone is talking about how the threat of the Zika virus will disrupt the Olympics. What exactly is Zika?

As soon as it was announced that there was an outbreak of the Zika virus in Rio de Janeiro, athletes began backing out of the games due to the risk. We’ve talked a lot about how Zika will affect the Olympic Games, but what exactly is it?

The Zika virus was discovered in Uganda in 1947. It has a bunch of annoying symptoms, such as redness of the eyes, fever, joint pain, and painful rashes. If that’s all Zika was, it wouldn’t be that dangerous, but it has been linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome, which leaves the victim either partially or fully paralyzed, most often temporarily. Zika also affects pregnant women, which can lead to terrible birth defects, including microcephaly.

The Zika virus is spread primarily through mosquito bites, although it can be spread through sexual contact as well. There simply just isn’t any way to accurately know who has Zika and who just has a common cold.

As it stands right now, there is no vaccine for the Zika virus. It’s dangerous because it’s untreatable as far as we know. The only way to avoid getting it is avoiding mosquitos and sexual contact.

The danger of Zika for Olympians lies in the paralysis and transmission methods. Mosquitos are bad enough, but the Olympic village is infamous for the amorous atmosphre. It would be devastating if an athlete couldn’t compete in the Olympics due to partial paralysis or a fever that could have been avoided.

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