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Zika Mutates Extremely Quickly, Which Is Why It’s So Scary

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A photograph of a mosquito on human skin.

Image: A photograph of a mosquito on human skin.

time.com - April 15th 2016 -  Alexandra Sifferlin

One thing that’s especially confounding about Zika is that as soon as something about the virus is understood, it comes under question.

Until recently, experts believed Zika was a relatively benign virus spread by mosquitoes. But now that it’s been linked to more than 1,000 microcephaly cases, scientists have taken a closer look, recently declaring it “scarier than we initially thought,” as one U.S. health official put it this week.

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Supporting documentation for the article above is within the links below . . .

UCLA scientists unravel the genetic evolution of Zika virus
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-scientists-unravel-the-genetic-evolution-of-zika-virus

STUDY - From Mosquitos to Humans: Genetic Evolution of Zika Virus
http://www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe/fulltext/S1931-3128%2816%2930142-1

See related study within the link below . . .

Nature - Comparative genomic analysis of pre-epidemic and epidemic Zika virus strains for virological factors potentially associated with the rapidly expanding epidemic

http://www.nature.com/emi/journal/v5/n3/full/emi201648a.html

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