Inside Uganda's forest where Zika virus originates
The Zika virus, which has been linked to thousands of babies being born with underdeveloped brains in Brazil, was discovered in a forest in the East African state of Uganda seven decades ago. BBC Africa's Catherine Byaruhanga visited the forest.
The Zika forest is not well known in Uganda, and most people will be hard-pushed to tell you where it is. The word itself means overgrown in the local Luganda language.
There is dense vegetation, a wide range of trees and lots of small animals. The only people you are likely to meet here are the forest-keeper and his family. They live in a small house made of corrugated iron sheets.
The virus was discovered in the forest - then a hub of scientific research in East Africa - in 1947 by accident by Ugandan, American and European scientists working on another viral disease, Yellow Fever.
While testing monkeys in the forest the scientists, whose research had been funded for a decade by the Rockefeller Foundation, came across a new microorganism, which they named Zika.
What is the Zika virus:
Spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also carries Dengue Fever and Yellow Fever
First discovered in Uganda in 1947 but now spreading in Latin America
Scientists say there is growing evidence of a link to microcephaly, that leads to babies being born with small heads
Can lead to fever and a rash but most people show no symptoms, and there is no known cure
Only way to fight Zika is to clear stagnant water where mosquitoes breed, and protect against mosquito bites
Only two cases of the virus have been confirmed in Uganda in the past seven decades.
This is because the types of mosquitoes that would transmit the virus to humans don't often come into contact with the general population, says Dr Julius Lutwama, a leading virologist at the Uganda Virus Research Institute.
"The Aedes we have, Aedes aegypti formosus, normally does not bite humans. And then we have other [mosquitoes] which live in the forests and prefer to bite at dusk and dawn," Dr Lutwama adds.
This is in contrast to Latin America, where a different sub species, Aedes aegypti aegypti, is spreading the Zika virus.
The Zika forest is not well known in Uganda, and most people will be hard-pushed to tell you where it is. The word itself means overgrown in the local Luganda language.
There is dense vegetation, a wide range of trees and lots of small animals. The only people you are likely to meet here are the forest-keeper and his family. They live in a small house made of corrugated iron sheets.
The virus was discovered in the forest - then a hub of scientific research in East Africa - in 1947 by accident by Ugandan, American and European scientists working on another viral disease, Yellow Fever.
While testing monkeys in the forest the scientists, whose research had been funded for a decade by the Rockefeller Foundation, came across a new microorganism, which they named Zika.
What is the Zika virus:
Spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also carries Dengue Fever and Yellow Fever
First discovered in Uganda in 1947 but now spreading in Latin America
Scientists say there is growing evidence of a link to microcephaly, that leads to babies being born with small heads
Can lead to fever and a rash but most people show no symptoms, and there is no known cure
Only way to fight Zika is to clear stagnant water where mosquitoes breed, and protect against mosquito bites
Only two cases of the virus have been confirmed in Uganda in the past seven decades.
This is because the types of mosquitoes that would transmit the virus to humans don't often come into contact with the general population, says Dr Julius Lutwama, a leading virologist at the Uganda Virus Research Institute.
"The Aedes we have, Aedes aegypti formosus, normally does not bite humans. And then we have other [mosquitoes] which live in the forests and prefer to bite at dusk and dawn," Dr Lutwama adds.
This is in contrast to Latin America, where a different sub species, Aedes aegypti aegypti, is spreading the Zika virus.
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