Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquitoborne arbovirus in the
family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus. It was first isolated
in 1947 from a rhesus monkey in the Zika forest of
Uganda (1). Sporadic human cases were reported from the
1960s in Asia and Africa. The first reported large outbreak
occurred in 2007 on Yap Island, Federated States of Micronesia
(2). The largest known ZIKV outbreak reported started
in October 2013 in French Polynesia, South Pacific (3),
a territory of France comprising 67 inhabited islands; an
estimated 28,000 persons (11% of the population) sought
medical care for the illness (4). The most common symptoms
of Zika fever are rash, fever, arthralgia, and conjunctivitis.
Most of the patients had mild disease, but severe neurologic
complications have been described in other patients
in French Polynesia (5).