WHO warns about possibility of “marked increase” in Zika cases

PanARMENIAN.Net - The World Health Organization warned Monday, April 25 of the potential for a "marked increase" in the number of Zika infections in the coming months, and its spread to new parts of the world, AFP reports.

With mosquito season arriving in Europe, "the possibility of local transmission combined with the likelihood of onward sexual transmission could see a marked increase in the number of people with Zika and related complications," WHO assistant director general Marie-Paule Kieny told a scientific Zika conference in Paris.

"As seasonal temperatures begin to rise in Europe, two species of Aedes mosquito which we know transmit the virus will begin to circulate," said Kieny.

About 600 disease experts from 43 nations are gathering in the French capital to pore over scant but increasingly worrisome data about the Zika virus sweeping Latin America and threatening the world.

Despite a flurry of research, very little is known about Zika -- how long it may hide out in the human body, the degree of risk of sexual transmission, the full list of diseases it may cause, and all of the mosquito species which can transmit it.