SAO PAULO, Brazil – A researcher holds a container with female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes at the Biomedical Sciences Institute in the Sao Paulo University on January 18. The Aedes aegypti is a vector for transmitting the Zika virus. The Brazilian Government announced it will direct funds to a biomedical research centre to help develop a vaccine against the Zika virus linked to brain damage in babies.

Word yesterday that World Health Organization (WHO) officials have said that the Zika virus (ZIKV) is “spreading explosively” in the Americas is not very comforting, especially to people living in this region.

According to WHO Director General Dr Margaret Chan, “the level of alarm is extremely high”.

With concern growing over the spread of the virus, the WHO has called an emergency meeting for next Monday to decide whether to declare a public health emergency.

That meeting can’t come too soon, given heightened suspicion that the Zika virus is the cause of microcephaly, a rare condition that results in babies being born with abnormally small heads.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/editorial/We-must-all-take-ZIKV-seriously_50099