The outbreak of the Zika virus was declared a global emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO) this week as the number of suspected birth defects linked to the mosquito-borne virus rose into the thousands, says Andrew Ward in the FT. This puts Zika in the same category as Ebola. So far there have been 4,180 suspected cases of microcephaly in Brazil, the epicentre of the virus.
To date more than 1.5 million Brazilians are thought to have been infected and the virus has spread to at least 23 other countries. The WHO anticipates up to four million infections across the Americas over the next year and, although it is not recommending restrictions on travel or trade, pregnant women are advised to consider avoiding affected areas. One of the top priorities is to investigate the link between Zika and microcephaly, which while “strongly suspected” is “not yet scientifically proven”.
The virus may have crossed over from the Aedes aegypti mosquito to the “much more common” Culex genus, which breeds throughout the Americas and parts of Africa and Asia, says Nadeem Badshah in The Times. A. Aegypti is a “wily foe”, says Andrew Pollack in The New York Times. It prefers urban areas, can breed in tiny amounts of standing water and bites in daylight, making it very efficient at spreading disease.
Although public health authorities believe the virus will occur in the US, the infrastructure of most buildings and efficient mosquito control means it’s likely to be “far less serious” than in Brazil. In our globalised, “media-saturated” world, “fear is much more contagious than any infection”, says Peter Sands in the FT. Caribbean countries dependent on tourism are seeing cancellations escalate.
The Olympic Games in Rio this August may not now deliver the expected boost to the country’s struggling economy. With the expected economic cost of pandemics put at more than $60bn a year, a “more robust framework” for protecting lives and livelihoods is required.