Public health round-up

Support for women and girls of childbearing age is at the centre of a new revised plan that the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners have issued to guide countries in their response to the Zika crisis. According to the revised plan, a key strategy for preventing the spread of the virus is ensuring that pregnant women, their partners and communities have the information they need to protect themselves from the virus. “This Zika virus strain and its complications represent a new type of public health threat which requires a unique and integrated strategy that places support for women and girls of child-bearing age at its core,” said WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan in the foreword of the revised plan. The Zika strategic response plan, July 2016 to December 2017 can be used by countries to guide their response to the Zika crisis. The plan revises the previous Strategic response framework and joint operations plan, January–June 2016. Other elements of the plan include integrated vector management, sexual and reproductive health counselling and health education and care within the social and legal contexts of each country where Zika virus is being transmitted. About US$ 121.9 million is needed to implement the revised plan. The growing Zika epidemic in the Americas and its link with birth defects and Guillain–Barré syndrome was declared a public health emergency in February. The virus is spreading increasingly to new areas where Aedes aegypti, the main type of mosquito that transmits the virus, are present. Efforts to control these mosquitoes may slow the spread of the virus but cannot prevent it. However the development of a vaccine against Zika could take years. In the meantime, countries must prepare to manage the continued spread of the Zika virus and its consequences. http://who.int/emergencies/zikavirus/response