In:

American Journal of Public Health

Author:

Laura C. Rodrigues, PhD, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Even before the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the epidemic of microcephaly a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern,” the interest by public and media was clear. The series of articles in this April issue of AJPH explores aspects of this—in some ways unprecedented—public health situation: the fi rst almost-but-not-quite pandemic to cause congenital malformations. Curiously, scientists and international organizations are taking public health actions and giving advice assuming that the epidemic of microcephaly is caused by congenital Zika infection, while remaining reluctant to accept the causal link. And almost every day comes with its new fi rst: the fi rst congenital transmission of a vectorborne virus in humans and possibly the first sexual transmission of a vector-borne virus.

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