Disease

WHO holds emergency meeting on Zika virus

An emergency World Health Organisation committee is meeting on Monday to advise on the response to the Zika virus , as the number of infected people continues to soar .

The committee will decide whether to designate the mosquito-borne virus – which has been linked to serious birth defects – a global emergency meriting immediate coordinated international action, amid criticism that it has been too slow to act .

On Thursday, WHO’s director general, Margaret Chan, said the virus was spreading explosively . The latest figures from Colombia, released over the weekend, backed her analysis, showing 20 297 confirmed cases of the disease in the South American country, including 2 116 pregnant women, making it the second most affected country after Brazil.

According to Colombian officials, the number of pregnant women confirmed to be affected has doubled in a week.

In Brazil, Zika has been linked, although not definitively so, to 4 000 cases of microcephaly, in which babies are born with smaller than normal heads, raising global fears about a virus that was previously considered relatively benign.

Concerns have been amplified by the fact that the Olympics take place in Rio de Janeiro this summer, when about half a million tourists are expected to visit the city.

The WHO, which says there could be as many as 4m clinical cases of Zika in the Americas – although some experts think the figure could be much higher – is under pressure to come up with a speedy and effective plan of action.

It was in the thick woodland of Zika forest, some 25km from Uganda’s capital Kampala, that the mosquito-borne Zika virus was first discovered in 1947.