Zika virus (ZIKV), a mosquito-borne flavivirus, belongs to the Flaviviridae 
family, genus Flavivirus. ZIKV was initially isolated in 1947 from a sentinel 
monkey in the Zika forest, Uganda. Little clinical importance was attributed to 
ZIKV, once only few symptomatic cases were reported in some African and 
Southeast Asiatic countries. This situation changed in 2007, when a large 
outbreak was registered on the Yap Island, Micronesia, caused by the Asian ZIKV 
lineage. Between 2013 and 2014, ZIKV spread explosively and caused many 
outbreaks in different islands of the Southern Pacific Ocean and in 2015 
autochthonous transmission was reported in Brazil. Currently, Brazil is the 
country with the highest number of ZIKV-positive cases in Latin America. 
Moreover, for the first time after the discovery of ZIKV, the Brazilian 
scientists are studying the possibility for the virus to cause severe congenital 
infection related to microcephaly and serious birth defects due to the 
time-spatial coincidence of the alarming increase of newborns with microcephaly 
and the Brazilian ZIKV epidemic. The present review summarizes recent 
information for ZIKV epidemiology, clinical picture, transmission, diagnosis and 
the consequences of this emerging virus in Brazil.