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About forty potential vaccines for the Zika virus are being tested, but none are likely to be available for women of childbearing age before 2020, the World Health Organization said today.
WHO director Margaret Chan said the virus, linked to deformations in babies’ heads and brains, remained “firmly entrenched” in large parts of the world. Although progress toward effective prevention has been made, with some drugs now in clinical trials, “a vaccine judged safe enough for use in women of childbearing age may not be fully licensed before 2020,” Chan said.
Declaring that the Zika virus is “spreading explosively,” the World Health Organization announced it will hold an emergency meeting of independent experts in Geneva on February 1 to decide if the outbreak should be declared an international health emergency.
Chan said that although there was no definitive proof that the virus was responsible for a spike in the number of babies being born with abnormally small heads in Brazil, “The level of alarm is extremely high.” She also noted a possible association between Zika infection and Guillain-Barre syndrome, sometimes resulting in paralysis.
“The possible links, only recently suspected, have rapidly changed the risk profile of Zika from a mild threat to one of alarming proportions,” Chan said. “The increased incidence of microcephaly is particularly alarming, as it places a heart-breaking burden on families and communities.”
Zika is spread by Aedes mosquitos, which also spread dengue and yellow fever. It could also be spread by the Asian Tiger mosquito in the US. There is some evidence that Zika can be transmitted through saliva and semen, although scientists do not believe this to be common. Chan said that this year’s el Niño weather patterns are expected to spread mosquito populations, increasing the Zika threat.
In addition to Zika’s possible link to birth malformations and neurological syndromes, WHO points to other main reasons for concern: potential for further international spread due to the wide geographical distribution of the mosquito vector, lack of population immunity, and the absence of vaccines, specific treatments and rapid diagnostic tests.
While Zika, spread by infected mosquitoes as well as by sexual contact, causes only mild symptoms in most people, pregnant women with the virus risk giving birth to babies with microcephaly, a crippling deformation that leads to abnormally small brains and heads.
In June, the WHO said USD 122 million (113 million euros) was needed to fund an 18-month plan to fight infections of women of childbearing age.
