It would also establish the W.H.O. as the lead in the fight, a role that it failed to take on during the Ebolaepidemic in West Africa.
The current outbreak of the Zika virus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, has taken the world by surprise. It was first identified in 1947 in Uganda, but for years lived mostly in monkeys. But in Brazil last May, cases began increasing drastically, and since then it has spread to more than 20 countries in Latin America, where populations have no immunity to it. The W.H.O. has estimated that four million people could be infected by the end of the year.
The real alarm is the possible connection to microcephaly, a condition that causes babies to be born with brain damage and unusually small heads. The number of cases of microcephaly reported in Brazil has also increased sharply, and researchers are scrambling to figure out whether Zika is the reason.
The W.H.O. could help with that, global health experts say.
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New York Times