World Health Organization (WHO) official Thursday said the Zika virus is spreading quickly in the Americas and the “level of alarm is extremely high”.
Speaking to WHO members in Geneva, WHO director-general Margaret Chan said, “Cases have been reported in 23 countries and territories in the region.”
This is the first time in decades that the disease has spread in such a large scale among humans since it was first identified in 1947, according to Chan.
She said the link between the virus and a growing count of microcephaly – a birth defect in infants – in the affected regions has not been established.
Chan added that an emergency committee would meet on Monday to discuss how to respond to the outbreak.
Speaking to reporters after the WHO assembly, assistant director-general Bruce Aylward said the awareness about mosquito-borne diseases should be strengthened.
“It is not clear yet whether or not the virus will be found in all places where the vector is. We would work as though that is a possibility and ensure people are aware. And again remember, many of the measures that are being recommended here make good sense in terms of dengue, in terms of chikungunya，in terms of other vector-borne diseases. So really it’s a reaffirmation of a lot of those measures which is good public health practice anyway,” he said.
He said so far, there has been no official notification of the Zika virus in China.
The WHO said the virus may infect three to four million people in the Americas by the end of the year. (CCTV/Reuters)
