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.
How much will it cost to fumigate the streets of Haiti?
Reuters
How does an institution like the World Bank come to put a price tag on a virus like Zika or any other health calamity?
A book about Aedes aegypti mosquitoes is seen next to larvae in a laboratory conducting research on preventing the spread of the Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases, at the Ministry of Public Health in Guatemala City.
Josue Decavele/Reuters
Satellite imaging can locate mosquito-friendly environments, allowing us to predict the advance of diseases they carry.
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?
Zika is an enormous challenge for Pope Francis and the Catholic Church.
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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.
Life hasn’t been sweet for the honeybees lately.
Heinz-Peter Bader/Reuters
Jason Mackenzie, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
You might have heard the term flavivirus recently due to the outbreak of Zika virus. Zika, along with West Nile virus, dengue, yellow fever and Japanese encephalitis, belong to this family of virus.
For a fairly non-descript virus Zika continues to surprise us. Zika has hit the headlines yet again with the news that there’s been transmission in Brazil of two cases by blood transfusion.
The Zika virus is suspected of causing this rare autoimmune disorder.
Jason Corneveaux/Flickr
Insecticides and mosquito nets only get you so far. Synthetic biologists are ready to take the battle against mosquito-borne disease to the level of DNA – which might spell the insects’ ultimate doom.
Women read Zika virus flyers at the departures area of Santiago’s international airport, January 28, 2016.
Ivan Alvarado/Reuters
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.
The WHO has declared a state of emergency to mobilise funds for research and greater awareness.
Salvatore Di Nolfi/AAP
Overnight, World Health Organisation Director-General Margaret Chan declared the outbreak of Zika virus a public health emergency. So what does this mean?
The link between microcephaly in unborn children and Zika hasn’t been definitely confirmed, but vaccine development is a top priority.
Percio Campos/EPA
Principal Medical Scientist and Head of Laboratory for Antimalarial Resistance Monitoring and Malaria Operational Research, National Institute for Communicable Diseases
Associate Dean For Global One Health, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences; and Director, Pandemic and Biosecurity Policy Program, Scowcroft Institute for International Affairs, Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University