Tracking down a Zika study

June 21, 2016 4:10 PM

Many of the articles I've read about Zika state that most people who get infected with the virus don't show symptoms. The CDC says that 80% of the infections are asymptomatic. Does anyone know where this statistic is coming from? I'm assuming there had to be some sort of study done to arrive at this number.

I live in Central America and a couple weeks ago got sick and had Zika symptoms. I never went to the doctor to get tested, so I guess it could have been a light case of dengue or chikungunya.

I know several people that have also gotten sick recently with something Zika-like. I'm wondering if maybe the 80% of infections being asymptomatic is coming from a study that was done on a population that had immunity to the virus. Maybe now that the virus is present in countries where people aren't immune to it, infections are more likely to be symptomatic.

I've looked online to try and find a study on this, but haven't been able to find anything.

posted by Lingasol to Health & Fitness (1 answer total)

Best answer: i think it's here. in particular the 19% value in the household survey (80 ~ 100-19). this paper is the reference (20) for the asymptomatic values in this overview.
posted by andrewcooke at 4:38 PM on June 21, 2016