Pieter Vancamp, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN) e Barbara Demeneix, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN)
A new study shows that the pesticide pyriproxyfen – widely used in Brazil during the Zika outbreak of 2015 – could disrupt thyroid hormones and thus affect brain development in children.
Researchers studying Alzheimer’s disease use fetal tissue for their experiments.
Atthapon Raksthaput/Shutterstock.com
The Trump administration has banned NIH researchers from using fetal tissue. The tissue is an essential tool for scientists investigating diseases ranging from Alzheimer’s to Zika virus infections.
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.
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.
How will the downgrade of Zika’s emergency status affect women like this 23-year-old Vietnamese woman and her baby born with microcephaly?
Vietnam News Agency/AAP
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.
Talking with patients who’ve had Zika is tough.
Pregnant woman and doctor image via www.shutterstock.com.
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 display used to educate the public on rubella vaccination and the mother-to-fetus transmission of this virus.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via Public Health Image Library
Though separated by time and place, there are surprising similarities in the the social issues raised by the rubella outbreak of 1964-65 and the recent Zika outbreak in South America.
An aerial view of the Christ the Redeemer statue and Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
Ricardo Moraes/Reuters
The chance the someone at the Rio games will import the virus to their home country is low.
Is a Zika vaccine being tested ahead of vaccines for other flaviviruses because Zika’s occurring in the context of an international sporting competition?
Christian Bruna/AAP
Recently two events concerning the Zika epidemic coincided: two potential vaccines against the virus were declared a success when used in mice, and Jason Day withdrew from the Olympic Games.
Cidade maravilhosa.
Aleksandar Todorovic/Shutterstock.com
Academics have sent an open letter to the World Health Organisation calling for the Olympics to be postponed or moved because of the Zika threat. They’re overreacting.
Fumigation to prevent possible spread of the mosquito Aedes Aegypti in Sao Paulo.
SEBASTIAO MOREIRA/EPA
To tackle Zika and other viral outbreaks, we need to focus not only on the pathology of the disease, but also on the global political and economic architecture.
A new arrival in Australian backyards may increase the risks of mosquito-borne disease outbreaks.
Better access to birth control and safe, legal abortions in Latin America could save lives. But carving out Zika-related exceptions in existing restrictions might not go far enough to achieve this.
Even if Zika sometimes causes pregnant mothers to have babies with microcephaly, this does not necessarily mean every infected mother would have an affected baby.
coniferconifer/Flickr
Despite all the hype around Zika, crucial questions remain unanswered. How great is the risk that infection during pregnancy would result in a baby with microcephaly? And what can be done to prevent this?
Guilherme Soares Amorim, who was born with microcephaly, has his head measured.
Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters
Despite high rates of infection, the Zika outbreak would not have been particularly alarming had it not been for the sudden and – apparently associated – increase in the numbers of infants born with microcephaly.
Honorary Professor Faculty of Health and Medical Science, Univeristy of Sydney; Senior Researcher Sydney Institue for Infectious Disease, University of Sydney., University of Sydney