Zika. What else have we been missing?

Mosquito (Zika vector) 

I am very excited to be a father one day. It is something I have looked forward to my whole life. It is also something that I worry about a lot. I really want my children to be happy and healthy. I want them to be able to learn and grown and experience all the amazing things that this life has to offer.

That is why the news of the last few months has been so frightening. A mosquito born RNA virus called Zika has been potentially linked recently to congenital defects like microcephaly, which can mean severe neurological impairment and death of the fetus or newborn. Zika has also potentially been linked to autoimmune complications like Gillian-Barré syndrome, which effects individuals of all ages.

Zika virus was first identified all the way back in 1947 in the Zika forest in Uganda in the rhesus macaque population. Since that first isolation the virus has popped up in tropical areas throughout western and central Africa, in Asia, and in several islands of the pacific region.

Zika was mostly ignored up through 2007. Infections only present symptoms in around 1 of 4 people infected and those symptoms were usually minor (low grade fever, maybe a rash, myalgia, or a headache). Zika was categorized by most within the family of neglected tropical diseases, because it was not considered worth researching by drug companies.

In 2007 things began to change. There was an outbreak on the island of Yap and then in French Polynesia in 2013 and 2014. This began to prompt concern from health experts, but still nothing changed till this last year when Zika made it to the northeastern states of Brazil. Within the large populations in Brazil Zika's, heretofore, hidden secrets are being revealed.

In October of last year health professionals in Brazil looked through their health data and realized that something was wrong. In northeastern states like Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte, and Sergipe there had been a ten fold increase in the number of births presenting with microcephaly.

To their credit, these health professionals kicked things into gear. On November 11, 2015 the Brazilian ministry of health declared a public health emergency in relation to the number of children born with microcephaly. On November 17, 2015 The Pan American Health Organization and The World Health Organizations also issued an epidemiological alert, which was followed by the title of , "Public Health Emergency". That title gives researchers and health experts access to the $15 million dollar budget of the World Health Organization to study and mitigate the negative health impact of Zika.

It saddens me to think of how long this virus has been overlooked. We had no idea what it might be capable of. How many millions of people have been infected over the last 68 years since Zika was discovered, and because of those infections how many babies have potentially been born with microcephaly or died in the womb?

It truly is exciting to see a world wide public health machine kicking in into gear to work on this  public health emergency. Daily there is news coming out the with updates in the research on the virus and it's transmission, there are advisories and educational material to inform people and slow the transmission, and there are speeches from world leaders and health professionals. However for me, a man preparing to have a family, the fear remains in the back of my mind. What else are we missing? Almost 70 years after finding this virus we are realizing its terrible potential. It took the infection of millions in Brazil before we realized what Zika was capable of doing.



For more information about the Zika virus click here

Information used in this article about Zika virus was taken from rapid risk assessment reports issued by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control on 24 November, 2015 and 21 January, 2016