Zika Virus Declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern

The WHO Director General, Dr Margaret Chan, convened an Emergency Committee made up of 18 experts and advisers, under the International Health Regulations, “to gather advice on the severity of the health threat associated with the continuing spread of Zika virus disease in Latin America and the Caribbean” on 1 February.

In assessing the level of threat, the Committee “looked in particular at the strong association, in time and place, between infection with the Zika virus and a rise in detected cases of congenital malformations and neurological complications.”.

They “agreed that a causal relationship between Zika infection during pregnancy and microcephaly is strongly suspected, though not yet scientifically proven” and that there is an “urgent need to coordinate international efforts to investigate and understand this relationship better.”

They also considered “patterns of recent spread and the broad geographical distribution of mosquito species that can transmit the virus. The lack of vaccines and rapid and reliable diagnostic tests, and the absence of population immunity in newly affected countries were cited as further causes for concern.”

The Committee’s advice was “that the recent cluster of microcephaly cases and other neurological disorders reported in Brazil, following a similar cluster in French Polynesia in 2014, constitutes an “extraordinary event” and a public health threat to other parts of the world…a coordinated international response is needed to minimize the threat in affected countries and reduce the risk of further international spread.”

“…the situation meets the conditions for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, ” which advice Dr Chan has accepted and she is now “declaring that the recent cluster of microcephaly cases and other neurological disorders reported in Brazil, following a similar cluster in French Polynesia in 2014, constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.”

“A coordinated international response is [therefore]needed to improve surveillance, the detection of infections, congenital malformations, and neurological complications, to intensify the control of mosquito populations, and to expedite the development of diagnostic tests and vaccines to protect people at risk, especially during pregnancy.” There is, however, to public health justification for restrictions on travel or trade to prevent the spread of Zika virus. “At present, the most important protective measures are the control of mosquito populations and the prevention of mosquito bites in at-risk individuals, especially pregnant women.”

For full statement see: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2016/emergency-committee-zika-microcephaly/en/

Editor’s note: It is important, in the context of this Public Health Emergency to take into account the relevant targets that relate to women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, (ADD LINK) under Goal 3 and also target 5.6, as well as the  Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development (ADD LINK its on http://ngosbeyond2014.org/articles/category/latin-america)