The World Health Organization (WHO) has removed the Zika virus from its list of emergencies. However, the status of the disease is not reduced, but increased: now more serious and long-term measures will be taken to counter it.
The status of a "public health emergency" was introduced for the Zika virus epidemic, when not too much was known about the disease, its causative agent, consequences and characteristics of its spread. However, over the past time, a reliable relationship has been established between a mild infection of pregnant women and the most severe consequences for the developing fetus. The continuing spread of the virus across the planet has also been demonstrated - a process that the first series of measures failed to stop.
A press release circulated by WHO removes this status from the disease, and now Zika is one of the issues for which a "medium to long term program of action" is being implemented. This means the consistent implementation of a wide range of measures, ranging from comprehensive studies of the virus itself and its mechanisms of action.
In fact, it is still poorly understood how different strains of the Zika virus differ and how different the consequences of infection with them and pregnant women and other people. It is not known how long acquired immunity lasts against disease and how effective it is against other strains of the virus. It is unclear exactly how many cases of microencephaly are caused by the disease: about 2,100 have already been confirmed, but 3,000 more remain in question. In the end, even the exact number of infected people is unknown: in healthy adults, the disease can be almost asymptomatic.
WHO also prioritizes work on a Zika virus vaccine. To date, about 30 candidates have been created, but only a few of them have begun the first stages of clinical trials.
Sergey Vasiliev
