"Historically, adult human infection with Zika virus has presented with mild, non-life threatening symptoms in 20% of infected patients, with 80% being clinically asymptomatic during initial infection."
Those diseases spread easily precisely because many people have it and don't stay home with mosquito net and repellents. They just go on with their lives, transmitting the disease to other people who may be more vulnerable and have worse symptoms.
When you get common viral infection symptoms, it's common in Paraguay to avoid Aspirin just in case it's dengue, even if you don't have the joint pain and spots in the skin that the disease is known for.
Some considerate people even use mosquito repellent when they get suspicious, so they won't transmit the disease in case it really is dengue.
People with Zika virus disease can have symptoms that can include mild fever, skin rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise or headache.
[…] Treatment
Zika virus disease is usually relatively mild and requires no specific treatment. People sick with Zika virus should get plenty of rest, drink enough fluids, and treat pain and fever with common medicines. If symptoms worsen, they should seek medical care and advice.
Peer-reviewed research (http://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal...) states that "80% being clinically asymptomatic during initial infection".
For the 20% of symptomatic people, the WHO lists (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/zika/en/) similar symptoms to cold/flu, symptoms you wouldn't necessarily assume are Zika symptoms.
Your friends you know have had Zika are symptomatic. You may have plenty of friends (not to mention yourself) in the much larger asymptomatic bucket.
The "I don't think all the experts are right because anecdotes" attitude just makes you look silly.
* Most people infected with Zika virus won’t even know they have the disease because they won’t have symptoms.
* The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting for several days to a week.
* People usually don’t get sick enough to go to the hospital
You believe your friends had Zika. bit they may not have. Given the Zika epidemic, I wouldn't be surprised if lots of sick people assumed they had Zika but in fact had something else. And, even if they had Zika, your anecdote does not trump what the CDC and WHO tell us.
I don't believe it, it was clinically tested with a diagnosis from the blood plus doctor in private hospital. That's how people get to know about it, not by word of mouth or looking up in Google.
I'm reaffirming that the statement is incorrect and they should travel down to Brazil to understand this matter
If you think the CDC and the WHO are not in Brazil, you're mistaken. But let's pretend you're right that CDC doesn't know what they're talking about. How about the Ministério da Saúde?
http://portalsaude.saude.gov.br/index.php/descricao-da-doenc...
A febre por vírus Zika é descrita como uma doença febril aguda, autolimitada, com duração de 3-7 dias, geralmente sem complicações graves e não há registro de mortes
Translation: Fever by Zika virus is described as an acute febrile illness, self-limited, lasting 3-7 days, usually without serious complications and there is no record of deaths. The hospitalization rate is potentially low.
Segundo a literatura, mais de 80% das pessoas infectadas não desenvolvem manifestações clínicas
Translation: According to the literature, over 80% of infected people do not develop clinical manifestations
This seems to back up very well ceejayoz's original comment, which you disagreed with: pointed out these diseases can often present as a mild cold, for which you'd never go to the hospital. You may well have gotten them without really noticing
So, presumably you don't think the Ministério da Saúde also have to travel to Brazil to know what they're talking about? There's also all kinds of information on portalsaude.saude.gov.br referencing the CDC, the WHO, and describing the fact that the CDC has been in Brazil for months conducting research and field investigations.
There you go! See that there's a difference from the other statement?
"Segundo a literatura, mais de 80% das pessoas infectadas não desenvolvem manifestações clínicas, porém quando presentes a doença se caracteriza pelo surgimento do exantema maculopapular pruriginoso, febre intermitente, hiperemia conjuntival não purulenta e sem prurido, artralgia, mialgia e dor de cabeça e menos frequentemente, edema, dor de garganta, tosse, vômitos e haematospermia.. No entanto, a artralgia pode persistir por aproximadamente um mês."
This statement is contradictory, this is were the confusion resides. I have never seen a case till today regarding this, neither has the society here a person that had Zika but very little symptoms, it's always hard and pushes the people to bed, what has happened a lot here is since "Zika" is on evidence people push "Dengue" symptoms as "Zika" just because it's on the "Vibe", so the numbers of Zika are huge but in reality it's a mix of Dengue (types 1,2 and 3), Zika and Chikungunha.
> There you go! See that there's a difference from the other statement?
I think you are confused about medical terminology, particularly, I think you are confusing acute fever (which is a fever with sudden onset) with severe fever.
> I have never seen a case till today regarding this, neither has the society here a person that had Zika but very little symptoms, it's always hard and pushes the people to bed
I'm pretty sure that the reason these sources have stated this is that people with Zika but very few symptoms have been identified by medical authorities. OTOH, many people with Zika but without severe symptoms won't ever know they had Zika, since they may not seek medical attention.