Zika virus: Can India win the fight?

Abstract

Zika virus is an emerging arbovirus of public health importance transmitted by Aedes mosquito which also transmits dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever. The disease has been spreading at an alarming rate in Africa, Pacific Islands, and the Americas. Given the expansion of environments where mosquitoes can live and breed, facilitated by urbanization and globalization, there is potential for major urban epidemics of Zika virus disease to occur globally. World Health Organization (WHO) has declared Zika virus disease to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Our failed attempts to control dengue epidemics in the past call for concern and we need to be to prepared to fight Zika virus before it arrives at our doors.

Keywords

• Microcephaly
• PHEIC
• WHO
• zika virus