The World Health Organisation informs the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which has been linked to brain deformities in babies, is likely to spread to all countries in the Americas except Canada and Chile.
The World Health Organisation informs the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which has been linked to brain deformities in babies, is likely to spread to all countries in the Americas except Canada and Chile.
"The first outbreak of the disease outside of Africa, Asia and the Pacific islands occurred in May 2015, when a case was reported in Brazil," reports The Guardian. It was considered to have relatively mild consequences for infected people, until in November Brazil’s health ministry said that the virus was linked to a foetal deformation (microcephaly), in which babies are born with too small brains.
According to CTV News, some U.S. travellers have been infected abroad with Zika and other viruses spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, but there have been no cases of local infection with Zika in the U.S. so far.
Trudie Lang, professor of global health research at Oxford University, believes it is important the response from the research community to be faster than with Ebola. “There is no treatment and no vaccine and so this would need addressing through clinical trials as quickly as possible," she said.
"The virus emerged in Africa in the 1940s, spread to Asia and was confirmed in the Americas only last May, though it likely appeared months earlier", informs ABC News. Brazilian officials claim it is associated with a recent wave of birth defects.
