The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that the explosive spread of the
Zika virus in the Americas is an “extraordinary event” that merits being declared an
international emergency.
Margaret Chan, WHO director-general said there is an “urgent need to coordinate international efforts to understand whether the Zika virus is causing birth defects.”
“Let’s be clear: it [Zika] is going to enter, it is going to spread,” the head of the health
ministry’s epidemiological department, Israel Cedeno, told the television network TVN-2.
WHO estimates there could be up to 4 million cases of Zika in the Americas in the next year.
Emergency declarations are meant as an international SOS signal and usually trigger increased money and efforts to stop the outbreak, as well as prompting research into
possible treatments and vaccines.