The following symptoms and complaints may indicate Zika virus infection:
Main symptoms
- Aphtae on the lip
- Arthralgias (joint pain) – especially in the wrists and ankles, knees (about 2/3 of patients).
- Pronounced feeling of illness
- Emesis (vomiting)
- Fever
- Hemospermia (blood in the semen)
- Skin rash (maculopapular exanthema/ blotchy rash appearing with small nodules).
- Conjunctivitis (conjunctivitis).
- Photophobia (sensitivity to light)
- Headache
- Lymphadenopathy (enlargement of lymph nodes), even in unusual places, such as behind the auricle
- Myalgias (muscle pain)
- Chills
Other indications
- The above symptoms occur in a period of 3-12 days (usually 3-7 days) after an infectious mosquito bite and last up to a week.
- Approximately 80% of all Zika infections are asymptomatic!
- A case series of 13 children showed that a normal head circumference at birth does not exclude severe brain damage caused by Zika virus: only months after birth growth disturbances (slight reduction in head circumference with transition to microencephaly) appeared.
