In:

The Lancet

Author:

John Maurice

Feb 1 was a landmark day in the history of the current Zika epidemic. It was the day Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO, declared to the world that the clusters of microcephaly and other neurological disorders reported by several countries and occurring in the same geographic areas as the epidemic constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). The declaration unleashed a surge of epidemic response activity around the world. This was the fourth public health event to earn PHEIC status, after swine flu in 2009, and polio and Ebola in 2014. Chan made the declaration on the advice of an emergency committee convened to guide her decisions on the epidemic. “The committee recommended the declaration“, David Heymann, chair of the committee and head of the Centre on Global Health Security at Chatham House, London, UK, tells The Lancet, “because there was an urgent need to know whether there was an epidemiological link between the neurological disorders and the rapidly spreading Zika epidemic”.

Download full publication: