An Ecological Assessment of the Pandemic Threat of Zika Virus.

ABSTRACT: The current outbreak of Zika virus poses a severe threat to human health. While the range of the virus has been cataloged growing slowly over the last 50 years, the recent explosive expansion in the Americas indicates that the full potential distribution of Zika remains uncertain. Moreover, many studies rely on its similarity to dengue fever, a phylogenetically closely related disease of unknown ecological comparability. Here we compile a comprehensive spatially-explicit occurrence dataset from Zika viral surveillance and serological surveys based in its native range, and construct ecological niche models to test basic hypotheses about its spread and potential establishment. The hypothesis that the outbreak of cases in Mexico and North America are anomalous and outside the native ecologica

SUBMITTER: Carlson CJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5001720 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature