The 2015 Zika outbreak in South America brought the virus to global attention. But tracing the history of the virus in West Africa can give clues to tackling future outbreaks.
Medical workers move a woman, who is suspected of having Ebola, upon her arrival at Meioxeiro Hospital, in Vigo, northwestern Spain, 28 October 2015.
SALVADOR SAS (EPA)/ AAP
Several sites in the US are releasing bacteria-infected mosquitoes as a way to fight mosquito-borne viruses that threaten people. What's the science – and how well will it work?
Women in rural Malawi, outside an AIDS hospital. AIDS was the first of the ‘new’ pandemic threats, after bird flu.
Author provided.
An active outbreak of a type of bird flu in China raises concerns about worldwide pandemics. Ebola and Zika viruses still threaten. Here's why this is not the time to cut funding.
Fumigation against the Zika-carrying mosquito in Guatemala.
Coordinadora Nacional para Reducción de Desastres via Flickr
Zika is not gender neutral: women’s rights are at stake.
Revellers at a carnival in Sao Paulo wear mosquito masks in a reference to the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which can spread dengue and Zika on February 4, 2016.
Paulo Whitaker/Reuters
Health spent a lot of time in the spotlight in 2016. Medicare was a major issue in Australia’s federal election and numerous government reviews into health were announced and reported.
A baby girl with microcephaly, in Lagoa do Carro, Pernambuco, Brazil.
EPA
Our immune system protects us but when it comes to some mosquito-borne disease, it can work against us. What are the implications for the development of a Zika virus vaccine?
Upscaling the success of emerging mosquito control technologies relies on automating the rearing and release of millions of mosquitoes. Australia is to become the testing ground for a novel strategy.
Pregnant women in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia were faced with the double fear of dying from Ebola as well during childbirth.
UNMEER/Flickr
We found that less than 1% of published research papers around the time of both outbreaks, that related to the outbreaks, actually explored their gendered impact.
A vial of the Zika Virus Investigational DNA Vaccine from the NIH.
NIH Image Gallery/Flickr
New research shows common local mosquitoes aren’t able to spread Zika. This means Australia is unlikely to see a major outbreak of the disease. But a risk remains in northern Queensland.
County officials gear up to hand-spray mosquitoes in San Diego.
REUTERS/Earnie Grafton
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.
A woman looks at a CDC health advisory sign about Zika at Miami International Airport
Carlo Allegri/Reuters
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.
With more birth abnormalities linked to Zika, effects of the virus may be more sinister than we thought.
BMJ 2016
Senior Lecturer, School of Computing and Information Systems, and Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne
