5 Ways The Zika Virus Is Here To Stay

Zika virus’ status as a global health threat may officially be over, but the disease’s impact is far from contained.  The World Health Organization decided in November to end its designation of Zika virus as a public health emergency, but that doesn’t mean that Zika virus has disappeared, explained Dr. Carlos Pardo-Villamizar, a clinical neurologist with an expertise in infectious disorders at Johns Hopkins Medicine. Alongside pressing concerns about how to prevent a resurgence of the disease, health care systems in Brazil and other countries that saw births of babies infected with the disease in utero now have to find a way to fund and facilitate expensive, intensive therapy and care for thousands of children who have been born with birth defects. As the WHO itself acknowledged, the outbreak will remain a “significant public health challenge.” And regions of the world that dodged a large Zika virus outbreak in 2016 are still at risk for them in 2017, said Pardo-Villamizar, because the Aedes aegypti mosquito has not been eradicated. This includes other Central and South American countries that didn’t see many infections, countries in Asia that regularly experience dengue outbreaks and the southern region of the U.S.  Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says the U.S. still has a lot of work to do when it comes to controlling Zika virus, protecting pregnant women from the disease...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news