Emerging research suggests that preexisting immunity to dengue virus, which is endemic in South America, could make a subsequent Zika infection worse.

Models based on where the mosquitoes that transmit Zika are found and human travel patterns to and from infected areas are key to predicting where the virus will spread.

There is no vaccine or medicine for Zika. But researchers have identified factors in the blood that signal a fetus has Zika-related birth defects, helping mothers decide whether to terminate a pregnancy.

Physicians like me are learning about Zika along with our patients. This takes a dose of humility on our part and an understanding from our patients that we learn something new every single day.

A computer model suggests that while more cases of Zika can be expected in the continental U.S. outbreaks will probably be small and are not projected to spread.

Zika was discovered almost 70 years ago, but wasn’t associated with outbreaks until 2007. So how did this formerly obscure virus wind up causing so much trouble in Brazil?

Congress has failed three times to approve spending to stop the spread of Zika. Their long-term response isn’t much better.

The chance the someone at the Rio games will import the virus to their home country is low.

It’s hard to contain a mosquito-borne infection like Zika when the conditions are ideal for it to spread.

Politics, not epidemiology or medicine, drives government responses to disease. Politicians are the ultimate decision-makers in public health, and they must respond to political forces.