In:

The New England Journal of Medicine

Authors:

Charlotte J. Haug, M.D., Ph.D., Marie Paule Kieny, Ph.D., and Bernadette Murgue, M.D., Ph.D.

"There are many viruses that have similar characteristics to dengue, yellow fever, and Zika that have the potential to emerge. We don’t know why Zika emerged now. But we know how to develop sur- veillance systems that will allow us to pick these viruses up if they start to move as Zika has.” This starting point was outlined by tropical medicine expert Duane Gubler at a World Health Organi- zation (WHO) meeting in Geneva in early March. Gubler has spent his career studying tropical infectious diseases with an emphasis on dengue virus (DENV), a flavivirus closely related to Zika virus (ZIKV).1 His introductory presentation at the international meet-ng about the ZIKV challenge em- phasized the complexity of the flavivirus–host relationship and the inevitability, thanks to urbanization and globalization, of emergence and spread of viruses that were previously confined to small, remote geographic areas.

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