Zika virus disease is an infectious condition caused by a member of the Flaviviridae family that primarily utilizes Aedes species mosquitoes as biological vectors [2]. The pathogen was initially isolated in non-human primates in 1947 and subsequently documented in human populations across African and Asian nations during the mid-twentieth century [1]. Clinically, the infection presents along a broad spectrum ranging from silent viremia to acute febrile illness, though it is formally recognized in medical frameworks for its capacity to trigger distinct congenital and neurological syndromes [3].
Disease overview
Zika virus disease
寨卡病毒病
Evidence-backed informationEN 5/7 applicable sections · ZH 5/7 applicable sectionsUpdated Sep 3, 2026
Zika virus disease is a mosquito-borne viral infection caused by a flavivirus first identified in Uganda in 1947, which has since circulated sporadically across Africa and Asia before expanding into global outbreaks [1][2]. While the majority of infections remain asymptomatic or cause mild illness, the pathogen gained significant public health attention due to its association with severe neurological and congenital complications [3]. Although global case reporting declined substantially after 2017, the virus persists endemically in tropical and subtropical regions with intermittent localized outbreaks [4][5]. Currently, no licensed vaccine or antiviral therapy exists, making vector control and targeted protective measures the primary public health strategies [3].
Read the full clinical and epidemiological profile6
Following an estimated incubation period of three to fourteen days, symptomatic individuals typically experience a short-lived illness lasting two to seven days, characterized by maculopapular rash, low-grade fever, conjunctivitis, myalgia, arthralgia, headache, and general malaise [4]. A substantial proportion of infected persons never develop noticeable symptoms [4]. In severe presentations, the infection can precipitate Guillain-Barré syndrome in adults and congenital Zika syndrome in developing fetuses, which encompasses microcephaly, limb contractures, hypertonia, ocular defects, and sensorineural hearing loss [1][5]. Maternal infection may additionally result in spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, or preterm delivery [5].
Historical circulation was restricted to occasional human cases in African and Asian nations throughout the mid-twentieth century, but widespread outbreak activity emerged beginning in 2007 and accelerated dramatically following introduction to the Americas in 2015 [1]. Although worldwide reporting dropped significantly after 2017, continuous low-level transmission persists across multiple American countries and traditional endemic zones, with recent localized outbreaks documented in Asia and Europe [4][1]. The disease maintains an endemic footprint throughout tropical and subtropical latitudes, concentrating highest infection risks in Latin America and the Caribbean [5]. Comprehensive global monitoring remains constrained, leaving true incidence patterns partially obscured by limited surveillance infrastructure [4].
The principal route of infection involves the daytime biting activity of infected Aedes mosquitoes, particularly Aedes aegypti, which exhibit peak feeding behavior during early morning and late afternoon hours [4]. Vertical transmission occurs when a pregnant individual passes the virus to the fetus, while horizontal spread has been confirmed through sexual contact, contaminated blood transfusions, blood products, laboratory accidents, and possibly organ transplants [4]. Because Aedes vectors concurrently circulate dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever viruses, geographic overlap frequently facilitates co-circulation and diagnostic cross-reactivity [4][1].
Current public health mitigation relies exclusively on reducing mosquito exposure and implementing safe practices to interrupt non-vector transmission pathways, as no approved immunization or therapeutic regimen is available [3]. Ongoing scientific initiatives are actively pursuing vaccine candidates and monoclonal antibody therapies, particularly to safeguard pregnant individuals and immunocompromised populations [5]. Until effective biological interventions are deployed, community-level vector management and traveler advisories constitute the cornerstone of disease avoidance [3].
- 1World Health Organization. Zika virus [Internet]. cited 3 Sept 2026.Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/zika-virus
- 2Giraldo MI et al. Pathogenesis of Zika Virus Infection. Annu Rev Pathol. 2023 Jan 24. PMID: 36151059. doi: 10.1146/annurev-pathmechdis-031521-034739.PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36151059/
- 3Plourde AR et al. A Literature Review of Zika Virus. Emerg Infect Dis. 2016 Jul. PMID: 27070380. doi: 10.3201/eid2207.151990.PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27070380/
- 4World Health Organization. Zika virus disease [Internet]. cited 3 Sept 2026.Available from: https://www.who.int/health-topics/zika-virus-disease
- 5de Jong HK et al. Zika virus: an overview update. Curr Opin HIV AIDS. 2025 May 1. PMID: 40048580. doi: 10.1097/COH.0000000000000926.PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40048580/
- A92.5
- 1D47
Coverage
Reporting countries and regions
AustriaAT
BelgiumBE
BrazilBR
ChinaCN
CroatiaHR
CyprusCY
CzechiaCZ
DenmarkDK
EstoniaEE
FinlandFI
FranceFR
GermanyDE
GreeceGR
Hong Kong, ChinaHK
HungaryHU
IcelandIS
IrelandIE
ItalyIT
JapanJP
LatviaLV
LiechtensteinLI
LithuaniaLT
LuxembourgLU
MaltaMT
NetherlandsNL
NorwayNO
PortugalPT
RomaniaRO
SingaporeSG
SlovakiaSK
SloveniaSI
South KoreaKR
SpainES
SwedenSE
SwitzerlandCH
Taiwan, ChinaTW
United KingdomGB
United StatesUS
Trends by reporting country
Monthly patterns over time
Research Radar
Recent related research
Zika Virus and Birth Defects--Reviewing the Evidence for Causality.
The New England journal of medicine
Literature links are provided for discovery and do not alter or validate the surveillance series above.
Data access
Page dataset index with source links and update metadata.
Official sourcesAuthority, cadence, notes45
Austria AGES Radar for Infectious Diseases
Austria
AGES Radar monthly national source. Internal ingestion retains native categories; public release is disabled pending licence review.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Belgium Annual Baseline
Belgium
Belgium annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Brazil DATASUS SINAN
Brazil
Brazil Ministry of Health DATASUS/SINAN public DBC microdata aggregated to national monthly notification counts.
Switzerland FOPH IDD
Switzerland
Switzerland FOPH/BAG IDD mandatory reporting API normalized to national case rows. Monthly series may use the dashboard CHFL aggregate where CH-only monthly series are not exposed.
China CDC Weekly
China
Monthly notifiable infectious disease reports published by China CDC.
National Disease Control and Prevention Administration
China
Official China public health bulletin and query portal.
PubMed
China
Biomedical literature discovery feed used as supplementary context.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Cyprus Annual Baseline
Cyprus
Cyprus annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Czechia Annual Baseline
Czechia
Czechia annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Germany RKI SurvStat 2.0
Germany
RKI SurvStat national weekly notification export; raw ZIP exports are retained and recent weeks are overwritten for revisions.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Denmark Annual Baseline
Denmark
Denmark annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Estonia Annual Baseline
Estonia
Estonia annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Spain Annual Baseline
Spain
Spain annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Finland THL Infectious Diseases Register
Finland
Finland THL Infectious Diseases Register national monthly case counts. The current month is ingested as provisional and the latest three months are refreshed for source revisions.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — France Annual Baseline
France
France annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — United Kingdom Annual Baseline
United Kingdom
United Kingdom annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Greece Annual Baseline
Greece
Greece annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Hong Kong, China CHP Notifiable Diseases
Hong Kong, China
Hong Kong, China CHP annual notifiable infectious disease CSVs normalized to national monthly totals
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Croatia Annual Baseline
Croatia
Croatia annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Hungary Annual Baseline
Hungary
Hungary annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Ireland HPSC Notifiable Diseases Hub
Ireland
Ireland HPSC national weekly notifiable-disease totals from the official ArcGIS FeatureServer. Internal ingestion is enabled; public release remains disabled pending written redistribution permission.
Iceland Directorate of Health Annual Dashboard
Iceland
National annual case notifications by disease. Published values can be revised retrospectively and remain annual period totals.
Iceland Directorate of Health STI Dashboard
Iceland
Monthly STI diagnosis facts from laboratory and registry surveillance; the official dashboard is published on a quarterly schedule.
Iceland Directorate of Health Respiratory Dashboard
Iceland
ISO-week respiratory diagnosis counts. Hospitalizations, samples, and vaccination indicators are separate measures and are not counted as diagnoses.
Iceland Directorate of Health Historical Registry
Iceland
Historical official registry tables for 1997–2021, with annual totals and disease-specific monthly notification facts retained at source grain.
Iceland Directorate of Health Legacy ICD Monthly
Iceland
Historical Saga EHR ICD encounter counts for 1997–2020. This clinical measure is non-comparable with registry notifications and is kept separate.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Italy Annual Baseline
Italy
Italy annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
JP NIID Weekly
Japan
Japan weekly infectious disease surveillance via NIID/JIHS.
Korea KDCA EID
South Korea
Korea KDCA notifiable infectious disease OpenAPI or portal/KOSIS downloads aggregated to national monthly notification counts.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Liechtenstein Annual Baseline
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Lithuania Annual Baseline
Lithuania
Lithuania annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Luxembourg Annual Baseline
Luxembourg
Luxembourg annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Latvia Annual Baseline
Latvia
Latvia annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Malta Annual Baseline
Malta
Malta annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Netherlands Annual Baseline
Netherlands
Netherlands annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Norway FHI MSIS Statistics Bank
Norway
Norway FHI MSIS national monthly notifications from the official Allvis frontend API; adapter contract checks guard the unversioned endpoint.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Portugal Annual Baseline
Portugal
Portugal annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Romania Annual Baseline
Romania
Romania annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Sweden Public Health Agency SmiNet
Sweden
Sweden SmiNet national monthly reported cases from the official Public Health Agency statistics pages; public release is enabled with closed-month publication and revisable recent-month refreshes.
Singapore CDA Weekly Infectious Diseases Bulletin
Singapore
Singapore national weekly case notifications, combining the official data.gov.sg 2012–2022 CSV history with CDA annual workbooks from 2023 onward; 2023 weekly PDFs are retained as a source fallback.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Slovenia Annual Baseline
Slovenia
Slovenia annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Slovakia Annual Baseline
Slovakia
Slovakia annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Taiwan, China CDC NIDSS
Taiwan, China
Taiwan, China monthly notifiable infectious disease open-data CSV feed.
US CDC NNDSS
United States
CDC National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System provisional data.
US CDC NHSS HIV
United States
CDC NNDSS weekly data plus NHSS annual national HIV diagnoses