{"id":149895,"date":"2018-01-30T05:08:49","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T10:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=149895"},"modified":"2018-01-30T05:08:49","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T10:08:49","slug":"genetic-change-possibly-behind-recent-zika-outbreaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/01\/30\/genetic-change-possibly-behind-recent-zika-outbreaks\/","title":{"rendered":"Genetic change possibly behind recent Zika outbreaks"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_69535\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-69535\" style=\"width: 4928px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/shutterstock_365183174.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-69535\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/shutterstock_365183174.jpg\" alt=\"Mosquito carrying Zika Virus (Shutterstock photo)\" width=\"4928\" height=\"3264\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/shutterstock_365183174.jpg 4928w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/shutterstock_365183174-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/shutterstock_365183174-768x509.jpg 768w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/shutterstock_365183174-1024x678.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 4928px) 100vw, 4928px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-69535\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">FILE: Mosquito carrying Zika Virus (Shutterstock photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SAN FRANCISCO &#8212; What caused the Zika virus, which had lain low since its discovery in the forests of Uganda in the 1940s, to trigger such severe outbreaks in recent times?<\/p>\n<p>A group of researchers says a gene mutation detected after 2012 could have enhanced the virus&#8217; power to overcome immunity in the Aedes mosquito, its main carrier, and increase its power to infect.<\/p>\n<p>The Asian lineage of the virus, responsible for the recent epidemics, underwent mutation, increasing its potency to infect, according to the research published in Nature Communications journal Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The research found the evolutionary mutation could increase the ability of Zika to overcome the host mosquito&#8217;s immune response, reproduce more efficiently and cause greater infection and epidemics, Shi Peiyong, a virologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and leader of the research team, said.<\/p>\n<p>Zika, spread mostly by the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito, can be passed on by a pregnant woman to her fetus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SAN FRANCISCO &#8212; What caused the Zika virus, which had lain low since its discovery in the forests of Uganda &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":69535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[2743,672,10086],"class_list":["post-149895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-mosquito","tag-uganda","tag-zika-virus","mauthors-xinhua","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}