coronavirus pandemic in India is spreading throughout West Africa in a similar manner as that of the Zika virus in Europe. The first reported cases reported in West Africa in 2005 were confined to Madagascar. A team of virologists from Washington State identified the virus on 28 December as Burkino, which is not confirmed. The Zika virus strains are usually similar, but there is evidence of unusual variation in transmission. An example is a virus, known to circulate in the South Pacific Ocean, which has had its first confirmed transmission to the Philippines last year, which is also not verified by our study.

The data are consistent with our initial understanding of the origins of the illness, and there has been some speculation that early viral infections (such as chikungunya and dengue) originated on the East African continent. The West African virus also found in many other species has also been implicated as an "unknown causation." The study, however, was one of many published in the journal Nature that has investigated how viruses cause the epidemic in the last century.

We are now awaiting more information on the Zika virus; however, the latest findings suggest that the virus may be transmitted by a host who has not been exposed to it directly.