# zika virus, zika fever, and microcephaly **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 27, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zika-virus-zika-fever-and-microcephaly/744414 "2016-01-27T21:31:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zika-virus-zika-fever-and-microcephaly/744414/41 "2016-02-19T02:22:30Z")
Q: Once infected, both male and female humans (at this time) are infected for life? ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zika-virus-zika-fever-and-microcephaly/744414/42 "2016-02-19T13:45:31Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > Q: Once infected, both male and female humans (at this time) are infected for life? “Infected” is not the right term. My understanding is that once you catch it the first time, you may get mild symptoms and then recover, and afterward you will have built immunity, in most cases. Think about it - the virus originates from Africa - people there get the disease when they are young, recover with immunity by the time they reach childbearing age, so microcephaly is not widespread. The same will occur in the Americas, where the disease is new, after a few years. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zika-virus-zika-fever-and-microcephaly/744414/43 "2016-02-19T14:04:29Z")
I have a young female relative who lives & works in Haiti. She got it a few weeks ago and was typical-flu sick for less than a week. She’s feeling 100% normal now. That is expected to be the end of it for her and for almost all the rest of us once it’s run through the population. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zika-virus-zika-fever-and-microcephaly/744414/44 "2016-02-19T14:34:32Z")
Here is an interesting article about using GMO mosquitoes to fight zika (and dengue, …): [Can GMO mosquitoes really help us stop Zika? A closer look. - Vox](http://www.vox.com/2016/2/16/11022156/zika-virus-genetically-modified-mosquitoes). Broomstick’s point about having to keep releasing the sterile males is correct. However, there is a completely different approach which is being studied for malaria control: ['Anti-malarial mosquitoes' created using controversial genetic technology | Genetics | The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/nov/23/anti-malarial-mosquitoes-created-using-controversial-genetic-technology) As I understand this (poorly, it must be said), they have used GM editing to create mosquitoes (the species that carries malaria) in two ways. First they are incapable of supporting the malaria bacteria, and secondly, they render their offspring who do not carry that modification sterile. So the modification ought to spread rapidly through the wild mosquito population. So far, they have not released these mosquitoes because of fears of damaging the ecology, but I think that the chane of wiping out malaria will lead to their release. Since they are not sterile, they cannot take it back once released. Doing this for zika and others would require first finding or breeding mosquitoes of that species that cannot carry the virus in question. This might not be so easy as with the malaria bacteria; that bacteria has to go through part of its life inside the bacteria, while the zika presumably doesn’t (or it couldn’t be sexually transmitted). Assuming the infection (normally quite benign) confers life-long immunity why not use live viruses injected into children too young to be sexually active. as a vaccine? ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zika-virus-zika-fever-and-microcephaly/744414/45 "2016-02-19T14:58:30Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > **Conceivably** , they might have gotten it too recently for a test to detect it. Slight OT sidetrack… but are you sure your name isn’t Tom Swifty? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zika-virus-zika-fever-and-microcephaly/744414/46 "2016-02-19T15:35:43Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Doing this for zika and others would require first finding or breeding mosquitoes of that species that cannot carry the virus in question. This might not be so easy as with the malaria bacteria; that bacteria has to go through part of its life inside the bacteria, while the zika presumably doesn’t (or it couldn’t be sexually transmitted). I don’t want to get too nitpicky here, but malaria is NOT caused by a virus or bacterium. It is a plasmodium, a single-organism considerably more complex than a virus or bacterium. The malaria parasite is equipped with sophisticated means to evade the immune system of the creatures it inhabits, which has made engineering any sort of vaccine difficult to impossible. Zika is a virus, and is quite “visible” to the immune system which, after a brief illness, wipes it out. They’re two different forms of life and thus require different approaches for eradication or control. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zika-virus-zika-fever-and-microcephaly/744414/47 "2016-02-19T18:37:43Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Assuming the infection (normally quite benign) confers life-long immunity why not use live viruses injected into children too young to be sexually active. as a vaccine? Why not just let it run it’s course naturally (via the mosquitoes)? You will end-up with the same result anyway. Makes for interesting conjecture - if we somehow engineer a wipe-out of these mosquitoes, do we set ourselves up for more risk down the road (e.g. we don’t get a chance to develop immunity)? Anyway, the problem is acute - the disease is new to the Americas, so there is risk associated with people trying to have children right now - this risk is very real. However, in a couple of years, in theory, as stated by **LSLGuy** , the virus will have run thru the population, and people will have immunity, and trying to have kids will be as risky on this side of the Atlantic as it is elsewhere WRT zika-caused microcephaly (probably very low). ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zika-virus-zika-fever-and-microcephaly/744414/48 "2016-02-19T19:19:59Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I don’t want to get too nitpicky here, but malaria is NOT caused by a virus or bacterium. It is a plasmodium, a single-organism considerably more complex than a virus or bacterium. The malaria parasite is equipped with sophisticated means to evade the immune system of the creatures it inhabits, which has made engineering any sort of vaccine difficult to impossible. > > Zika is a virus, and is quite “visible” to the immune system which, after a brief illness, wipes it out. > > They’re two different forms of life and thus require different approaches for eradication or control. I stand corrected. But my point is unchanged. Conceivably, you could modify mosquitoes that will kill the virus carrying zika. Otherwise a vaccine might be hard. I know they have been trying to make vaccines against the closely related dengue virus without much success. However, there is a complication: there are four varieties and infection with one gives no protection against the other three. In fact, for some reason that I have never seen any explanation for, it is the second dengue infection that is likely to be the most serious. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zika-virus-zika-fever-and-microcephaly/744414/49 "2016-02-19T19:58:30Z")
Hmm… perhaps the immune system tends to over-react to the second dengue infection? Infections that trigger things like cytokine storms cause the body to attack itself. Just a wild-ass guess at a theory on my part, don’t take too seriously. ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zika-virus-zika-fever-and-microcephaly/744414/50 "2017-05-03T19:20:54Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Zika virus/fever is in the news these days as a suspected cause of microcephaly. The news isn’t exactly clear what the connection is. Is it: > > A)women who experience a bout of Zika fever (the illness caused by Zika virus) **during pregnancy** are at elevated risk for delivering a child afflicted with microcephaly, or > > B)women who have experienced a bout of Zika fever at any time in the past are forevermore carriers of the virus, and any future pregnancy presents elevated risk of microcephaly? You can only get the Zika virus if you have sex or get bitten. There is time period when you get it two it shows up. So it will not effect pregnancy. But if you about to get pregnant it will effect it. ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zika-virus-zika-fever-and-microcephaly/744414/51 "2017-05-03T19:26:35Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > So, rather than the government of El Salvador telling women they shouldn’t have a baby for the next two years, they should be telling them to get tested to see if they’ve had it before getting pregnant? Zika virus is not only in El Salvador but all over South America, central America and the Caribbean islands. The virus will not go away, it is here to stay. So waiting two years or three years will not change the outcome. Unless the government spray toxins every where and still most likely they will not kill the Zika virus and make it go away. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zika-virus-zika-fever-and-microcephaly/744414/52 "2017-05-03T20:15:03Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2017, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zika-virus-zika-fever-and-microcephaly/744414/53 "2017-05-07T22:16:50Z")
> [@Canadjun](#): > > nm Where you trying to say some thing to my post above? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zika-virus-zika-fever-and-microcephaly/744414.md?page=2)