Why is congenital Zika syndrome asymmetrically distributed among human populations?

Abstract

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a health burden due to the severe neurological abnormalities that arise after congenital infection. Although multiple experimental studies have linked ZIKV with neural birth defects, the scientific community has not been able to fully explain why Congenital Zika Syndrome (CZS) was only apparent after the virus entered the Americas and why these occurrences have an asymmetric geographic distribution. Here, we review the impact of ZIKV infection on human populations by exploring evolutionary changes in the virus' genome as well as examining the diverse genetic and environmental cofactors of the human hosts.