Symptoms of Zika fever

Zika illness may cause a blotchy rash, low-grade fever, sore or swollen joints, red eyes without discharge, headache, muscle pain, or tiredness. Symptoms can be mild and resemble other mosquito-borne or viral illnesses, so they do not confirm Zika. The timing of travel, mosquito exposure, and possible sexual exposure helps a clinician decide whether testing or precautions are appropriate.

Contact a clinician and share your travel dates, destinations, symptom onset, and pregnancy status or pregnancy plans. Rest, drink fluids, and use only medicines advised by a healthcare professional; avoid aspirin or anti-inflammatory medicines until illnesses that can cause bleeding have been considered. Prevent further mosquito bites with repellent, covered clothing, and screens, and ask about sexual-transmission precautions.

Arrange prompt assessment after possible exposure if you are pregnant, planning pregnancy, or have a partner who travelled to an affected area. Seek urgent help for difficulty breathing, fainting, severe weakness, confusion, severe abdominal pain, persistent vomiting, or bleeding. Contact a clinician if weakness, tingling, or loss of movement develops, because neurological complications need assessment.

Ask whether your symptoms and travel history fit Zika or another infection, whether testing is useful, and how long to use mosquito and sexual-transmission precautions. If pregnancy is relevant, ask about monitoring and safer timing for conception.