The Zika Virus has now taken the attention of many when reports of more than 2,700 babies were born with birth defects in 2015. The World Health Organization is set to convene on Monday, Feb. 1, in Geneva, to talk about the outbreak, which might possibly be worse than Ebola.
According to WHO, the Zika virus was first reported on May 2015, in Brazil. However, the disease has spread explosively in the following months and has affected 22 other countries, mostly in Latin America.
Zika Virus is transmitted through the bite of a mosquito. But not all mosquitoes spread this kind of disease. The culprits are the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes which are also responsible for the spread of the Dengue and Chikungunya viruses, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). It will take 2-7 days, after the mosquito bite, before symptoms will become evident. Symptoms may include mild fever, conjunctivitis, head ache, joint pain, and skin rashes.
Zika virus is now suspected to be the cause of neonatal malformations in thousands of new born babies in Brazil and other Latin American countries. The malformation called microcephaly results to an abnormal smallness of a baby's head. It is also linked to a rare nervous system disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome, according to BBC.
The World Heath Organization has yet to confirm that the Zika virus really is the reason for the widespread newborn epidemic in the Americas, but WHO Director, Dr. Margaret Chan, said the Zika virus has evolved "from a mild threat to one of alarming proportions," as reported by BBC.
Meanwhile, in a report by CBS Los Angeles, a leading expert on Zika virus said that the disease is more than we have imagined.
"It's actually much worse than you imagined," said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor University.
"The message is an epidemic of massive proportions - you're looking at millions of people being infected. In the Western Hemisphere it already is worse than Ebola by far. And we're just seeing the beginnings of it."
