From its discovery in Uganda in 1947, Zika virus (ZIKV) was considered a relatively
innocuous viral pathogen with sporadic and infrequent occurrence of human infection.
It was during an outbreak in French Polynesia in 2014 when cases of Guillain-Barre
syndrome were identified as a serious complication of ZIKV infection in adults. However,
in 2015, ZIKV emerged into and swept through South and Central America infecting millions
of people. As part of the latter ZIKV outbreak, in Brazil, cases of microcephaly and
other serious congenital complications affecting a large fraction of infants born
to mothers infected during pregnancy were first identified and linked to ZIKV. This
chapter reviews the history and clinical manifestations of ZIKV infection and mechanisms
of immunoprotection. It is notable that, while limited, historical monographs identified
most, if not all, of the precepts that are considered as newly discovered.
