Zika Virus Outbreak (2015)
The Zika virus outbreak, which began in 2015, emerged as a significant global health crisis after the virus was detected in Brazil and subsequently spread throughout South America. Initially discovered in Uganda in 1947, the Zika virus, transmitted primarily by Aedes mosquitoes, had been largely contained in Africa and Asia until its re-emergence in the Pacific and then the Americas in the late 2000s. By early 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Zika a Public Health Emergency of Global Concern due to its association with severe birth defects, particularly microcephaly in infants born to infected mothers.
In the United States, local transmission of the virus was confirmed in Florida and later suspected in Texas and Louisiana. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued travel advisories for affected regions, urging caution for pregnant women due to the risks posed by the virus. As of late 2016, thousands of cases had been reported, predominantly in U.S. territories like Puerto Rico. The response to the outbreak became politically charged, with funding disputes in Congress hindering efforts to combat the virus. Overall, the Zika outbreak highlighted the complexities of public health responses to emerging infectious diseases and the need for coordinated international efforts.
Zika Virus Outbreak (2015)
Date: 2015–
Place: Americas; Pacific Islands; Southeast Asia
Summary
The Zika virus outbreak is an international health crisis beginning with the 2015 discovery that the Zika virus had spread into South America. In 2016, health officials confirmed that mosquitoes in the United States were transmitting the Zika virus in Florida and surrounding states.
Key Events
- 1947—Zika virus discovered in monkeys living in the Zika Forest of Uganda.
- 2007—Zika virus discovered on Yap Island in the western Pacific Ocean, marking the first time the virus is discovered outside of Africa and Asia.
- May 2015—Zika virus is confirmed in Brazil and begins to spread through South America.
- February 1, 2016—World Health Organization (WHO) upgrades Zika to a global health emergency.
- July 29, 2016—US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirms that mosquitoes have begun spreading Zika in the continental United States.
Status
As of October 26, 2016, according to the Washington Post, there were 32,814 confirmed cases of the Zika virus in the United States, including 4,091 cases in the continental United States and 28,723 cases in US territories, mainly Puerto Rico. Of the cases reported in the continental United States, 3,952 were travel-related, with the remaining 139 cases believed to have been transmitted locally. On June 28, Senate Democrats rejected a funding bill that would have provided $1.1 billion to fight Zika on the basis that Republican legislators had included provisions in the bill that hindered organizations such as Planned Parenthood from providing contraceptives to women and removed $540 million in funding from the Affordable Care Act. Republicans in Congress had previously refused to support a White House proposal, supported by congressional Democrats, to provide $1.9 billion in funding to fight the disease. Adults in affected areas have been advised to avoid contact with day-active mosquitoes and, in areas with high rates of infection, women have been advised to avoid pregnancy due to a risk of birth defects. The CDC has issued travel advisories to individuals planning on traveling to countries with high incidence of infection, including Colombia, Brazil, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, and Ecuador. In the United States, the CDC has issued travel advisories for portions of the southern United States, including Texas, Florida, and Louisiana.
In-Depth Overview
The Zika virus was first identified in 1947 in a rhesus monkey living in the Zika Forest in Uganda, as part of a study attempting to identify diseases transmitted by mosquitoes. Zika is a Flaviviridae virus spread by mosquitoes in the Aedes genus and, in humans, results in Zika fever, a typically nonfatal condition that involves fever, rash, and muscular/nervous discomfort. Research has shown, however, that pregnant women who contract Zika can transfer the virus to their fetus, which can then result in neurological deformities, including microcephaly. In adults, the virus has also been linked to the nervous disorder Guillain-Barré syndrome.
The Zika virus spread from Africa to Asia in the 1970s and 80s, but had been largely contained in both Asia and Africa from the 1980s to the 2000s. In 2007, the disease was discovered in the isolated Yap Island community in the Pacific Ocean, where more than 70 percent of the island’s 7,361 residents had been infected. An American medical volunteer visiting Yap Island brought the first known case of the disease to the United States in July 2007. In 2013 and 2014, there was an outbreak of Zika in other Pacific islands, indicating that the disease had spread from Yap Island.
In 2015, Brazilian health officials reported that the disease had arrived in Brazil and was rapidly becoming a major health epidemic. Within the year, confirmed cases were discovered in seventeen Latin American and Caribbean countries, including Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico. On January 15, 2016, doctors in Hawaii identified the first case of Zika-related brain damage in a baby born in the United States. The child’s mother had been living in Brazil at the time of her pregnancy, but returned to Hawaii to give birth. The CDC issued a travel advisory warning women who are pregnant or might become pregnant to avoid visiting countries with active Zika transmission.
Later in January 2016, a few Zika cases began to appear in the United States involving individuals who had traveled to countries with active local transmission. World Health Organization (WHO) chief Margaret Chan issued a warning that the United States might see more than four million cases within the next year due to spread from Central and South America. The WHO upgraded the Zika threat to a Public Health Emergency of Global Concern on February 1, 2016, and called on the governments of the world to prepare to combat the virus. President Barack Obama pledged to set aside $1.8 billion to fund the efforts to control the virus, though partisan disagreement in Congress stalled efforts to approve funding. Further research indicated that Zika can also be spread through sexual contact and blood transfusion, though specialists were uncertain how such factors contributed to the overall spread of the disease. In April, Obama announced that $589 million originally dedicated to the effort to fight Ebola would be given to the CDC to combat Zika.
On June 29, Florida governor Rick Scott issued a press release confirming that the Zika virus was being spread locally in Florida by mosquitoes. Scott appealed to the federal government to provide emergency funding to the state to combat the crisis. By August, CDC officials suspected that local transmission of the Zika virus had spread to Texas and Louisiana, although the only confirmed cases of local transmission were in Florida. In the United States and its territories, the overwhelming majority of cases remained in Puerto Rico.
Key Figures
Margaret Chan: Head of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Tom Frieden: Director of the CDC involved in the effort to control the outbreak in the United States.
Barack Obama: President of the United States who pledged to provide emergency funding to help southern states combat the disease.
Bibliography
Herszenhorn, D. M. (2016, June 28). Zika bill is blocked by Senate Democrats upset over provisions. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/us/politics/congress-zika-funding.html
The history of Zika virus. (2016). World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/emergencies/zika-virus/timeline/en/
McNeil, D. G., Jr. (2016, January 16). Hawaii baby with brain damage is first US case tied to Zika virus. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/health/hawaii-reports-baby-born-with-brain-damage-linked-to-zika-virus.html
Silver, M. (2016, February 5). Mapping Zika: From a monkey in Uganda to a growing global concern. NPR. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/02/05/464442791/mapping-zika-from-a-monkey-in-uganda-to-a-growing-global-concern
Stamm, S., & Cameron, D. (2016, October 26). All the reported cases of Zika in the United States. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/us-zika-cases/
Sun, L. H., & Dennis, B. (2016, August 1). CDC issues a travel advisory to Florida, which has 10 new cases of Zika. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/08/01/florida-announces-10-new-zika-cases-a-travel-advisory-is-expected/
Sun, L. H., & Dennis, B. (2016, July 29). US confirms Florida Zika cases are first local transmission in any state. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/07/29/florida-announces-zika-is-likely-spreading-by-mosquitoes-in-the-continental-u-s-2/
Timeline: Zika virus outbreak. (2016, June 22). Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/ct-timeline-zika-virus-outbreak-20160217-htmlstory.html
Up to 4 million Zika cases possible in Americas over next year, WHO says. (2016, January 28). Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-zika-global-health-emergency-20160128-story.html