The news is filled right now with reports of Zika, the virus carried and transmitted by bites from two main species of mosquitoes. 

Zika virus was first discovered in monkeys in Uganda in 1947. Zika outbreaks did not occur outside of Africa until 2007, when it spread to South Pacific and later to South and Central Americas. The latest locally acquired cases are reported in Miami, Florida (around 15 diagnosed at the time of this writing, starting in June 2016). 

The mosquitoes capable of carrying Zika have even made it as far North as Chicago. 

One thing about Zika is that 80 percent of people who have it don’t even have symptoms. It is, for most people, a silent disease. Although the CDC is conducting testing to achieve more diagnoses, they are only testing people who show symptoms of fever, rash, joint pain and/or red eyes; these are generally on the mild side and last less than a week. 

However, more deleterious complications can arise from the virus, including paralysis associated with Guillain-Barré Syndrome and, in pregnant women, birth defects in their newborns, including (but rarely) microcephaly.