The Zika virus outbreak in Latin America has created panic all over the world. Health experts say that it is possible that this outbreak might even be a more severe threat to global public health compared to the Ebola outbreak that took the lives of over 11,000 people.
Voice of America reports that those statements were made by health experts who were interviewed by The Guardian and Examiner. An emergency meeting of the World Health Organization will be held on Monday, Feb. 1 to discuss the severity of the Zika virus outbreak as a global health crisis. Health experts from WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also gave a warning that there is a possibility that the Zika virus outbreak could affect as many as four million people.
"In many ways the Zika outbreak is worse than the Ebola epidemic of 2014-15," Wellcome Trust head Jeremy Farrar told the Guardian. "Most virus carriers are symptomless. It is a silent infection in a group of highly vulnerable individuals, pregnant women, that is associated with a horrible outcome for their babies."
Public health experts are also saying that the biggest problem in dealing with this outbreak is the lack of development for the Zika virus vaccine. "The real problem is that trying to develop a vaccine that would have to be tested on pregnant women is a practical and ethical nightmare," said Mike Turner from the Wellcome Trust.
The Zika virus is spread through mosquito bites with symptoms that include fever, rashes, joint pain and conjunctivitis that last from a couple of days to a week, according to CDC . However, the real reason behind the panic caused by the Zika virus outbreak is the virus' effects on pregnant women and their babies. Zika virus is linked to cases of birth defects such as congenital microcephaly.
