WAHINGTON, Jan 28: US scientists studying the Zika virus have warned that it could be a decade before a vaccine is publicly available.The virus is linked to shrunken brains in unborn children, leading to severe brain damage or death.
The Zika virus is "spreading explosively" in the Americas, the head of the World Health Organization said Thursday, as the global health body warned that it expected up to four million cases of the disease.
WHO chief Margaret Chan called for an emergency meeting on February 1 on the outbreak of the virus, which has been blamed for the birth defect microcephaly, a condition that causes babies to be born with an abnormally small head.
It has spread to more than 20 countries. Brazil President Dilma Rousseff said on Wednesday that Brazil must wage war against the Aedes aegypti mosquito that spreads the Zika virus linked to a surge in cases of a dangerous birth defect, focussing on eliminating the insect`s breeding grounds.    ?AFP, REUTERS, BBC