With the confirmation of autochthonous and imported Zika virus infection in French Guiana, the number of countries globally with evidence, past or current, of Zika virus transmission has grown to 33 from Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Pacific Islands.

Beside the 13 countries/territories reporting Zika transmission since 2014 in the Western hemisphere, the following countries have reported Zika transmission at some point–Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda , Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

Image/CDC
Image/CDC

In addition, there are twelve countries in Asia and Africa that have reported Zika transmission from studies where Zika virus antibodies were detected in healthy people. However, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes, “These studies cannot determine where the people were infected or if they were infected with Zika virus because the antibodies may have resulted from infections with other closely related viruses, such as dengue virus.”

With the outbreak in the Americas in 2015, the number of countries is rapidly growing and the CDC suspects the virus will spread further, including an increase in travel-associated cases in the US. This of course could lead to local spread.

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