Zika virus particles (red) shown in African green monkey kidney cells
FLICKR, NIAID
Children who have developed dengue immunity from a previous infection appear to be protected from getting sick from Zika, according to a study published yesterday (January 22) in PLOS Medicine.
The two viruses are closely related and the researchers reasoned that immunity to one may change susceptibility to the other.
The scientists looked at data from children collected from the 2016 Zika epidemic in Managua, Nicaragua. They followed roughly 3,700 children between two and 14 years old, focusing on those whose history with dengue was known.
Kids who previously had dengue were 38 percent less likely to show Zika symptoms when infected than those who hadn’t had dengue, Scientific American reports. “It didn’t protect them from getting infected, but if they got infected, they were less likely to get sick,” study coauthor Aubree Gordon of the University of ...
