Mosquito
TVC E, NEWS – About four million people stand the chance of being infected with Zika virus in the Americas this year, the World Health Organization has predicted.
According to WHO, most will not develop symptoms, but the virus, spread by mosquitoes, has been linked to brain defects in babies.
But the United States said it hopes to start vaccine trials in people by the end of the year.
Dr. Margaret Chan
Addressing journalists on Thursday, WHO director general, Dr. Margaret Chan, said Zika had gone “from a mild threat to one of alarming proportions.”
Chan has set up a Zika “emergency team” after the “explosive” spread of the virus.
It would be recalled that the last time an international emergency was declared was for the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has killed more than 11,000 people.
Zika was first detected in Uganda in 1947, but has never caused an outbreak on this scale.
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