Today, the World Health Organization’s Director-General officially declared the outbreak of the Zika virus a global public health emergency.
WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan: #ZikaVirus & #microcephaly situation is a Public Health Emergency of Intl Concern #alert
— WHO (@WHO) February 1, 2016
The announcement enables emergency funding for research and prevention measures across the globe. It should empower a more global reaction to the outbreak that has been mostly clustered in Brazil and the Americas.
Notably, the WHO is not calling for trade or travel restrictions. Instead it seems the declaration is focused on spurring collaborative research and awareness of the dangers of the Zika virus.
Zika is a disease that re-emerged after lying mostly dormant since the late 1940s and early ‘50s. It is a health emergency today because doctors are connecting the mosquito transmitted virus to microcephaly, a condition that causes birth defects with lifelong impacts. For the record, the link between Ziva and the birth defects is still not definitive, but seems probable.
Some see the quick escalation to global health emergency as an overreaction to criticism around the relatively slow response to Ebola last year.
The International Olympic Committee has released a statement assuring the public that planes are in place to combat the transmission of the Zika virus during the upcoming Summer Olympics in Brazil.
To better understand the virus and situation here is some of the great coverage on Global Citizen.
What you need to know about the Zika virus, by Joe McCarthy
ZIka: Did we have it coming? by Mark Leon Goldberg
Genetically modified mosquitoes may be the best weapon against Zika, by Joe McCarthy