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Having already discussed Zika in a previous blog (http://tbrann.weebly.com/biology-blog/brazil-in-a-state-of-emergency-as-virus-harms-new-borns), Zika has expected exploded in the media with it currently being the 6th most popular article on the BBC website as of the 3rd of February. But has the world been prepared for Zika? An article in the newscientist thinks not. Do I agree? The outbreak of Zika occurred in late 2015 with a small outbreak being in French Polynesia in 2013. So Zika’s potential danger was shown to us around 3 years ago and it has been rampant in Brazil for months. So why only now, on the 1st of February after an estimated three to four million cases of the disease, is the World Health Organization having an emergency committee on the virus. What makes this worse is that this is one of many viruses which the WHO have been slow to react to; HIV, Ebola and SARS being touted as being slow. Credit I feel has to be given to the WHO for creating the Ebola vaccine in record time however it was still too late, and with Zika how long is too late? Should a vaccine already be in production? Has the WHO done anything but talk about Zika? Overall I feel like more should be done about the Zika virus especially with more international cases of Zika being revealed every day
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2075343-yet-again-we-have-been-blindsided-by-an-emerging-virus/
Having already discussed Zika in a previous blog (http://tbrann.weebly.com/biology-blog/brazil-in-a-state-of-emergency-as-virus-harms-new-borns), Zika has expected exploded in the media with it currently being the 6th most popular article on the BBC website as of the 3rd of February. But has the world been prepared for Zika? An article in the newscientist thinks not. Do I agree? The outbreak of Zika occurred in late 2015 with a small outbreak being in French Polynesia in 2013. So Zika’s potential danger was shown to us around 3 years ago and it has been rampant in Brazil for months. So why only now, on the 1st of February after an estimated three to four million cases of the disease, is the World Health Organization having an emergency committee on the virus. What makes this worse is that this is one of many viruses which the WHO have been slow to react to; HIV, Ebola and SARS being touted as being slow. Credit I feel has to be given to the WHO for creating the Ebola vaccine in record time however it was still too late, and with Zika how long is too late? Should a vaccine already be in production? Has the WHO done anything but talk about Zika? Overall I feel like more should be done about the Zika virus especially with more international cases of Zika being revealed every day
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2075343-yet-again-we-have-been-blindsided-by-an-emerging-virus/