Zika virus disease is named after the Zika forest in Uganda, where it was discovered in 1947 –first in a monkey, and then in the Aedes mosquito the following year.
The first human case was recorded in Nigeria in 1952. South America reported its first case of Zika in 2015. There are two strains of the virus-the African lineage, which emerged from Uganda, and the Asian linage that is spreading in the Americans and the pacific.