The World Health Organization declared the Zika virus a global health emergency last Monday. 

Zika, which has recently shown a strong presence in South and Central America, is dangerous primarily due to its impact on pregnant women. 

“Recently, it’s been linked to birth defects in Brazil,” said Michael Reiskind, assistant professor of entomology. “If it wasn’t for the birth defects, we probably wouldn’t hear that much about Zika.”

Due to the risks of birth defects, officials in some of the affected countries have advised to hold off on pregnancies until the situation is more under control.

The birth defect linked with Zika is microcephaly, meaning “small head.” Microcephaly causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads and often leads to a variety of mental and developmental challenges.

 “In Brazil, in 2014, they had something near 150 cases of microcephaly,” Reiskind said. “In 2015, during the same period as the large emergence of the Zika virus … they had about 4,500 cases.”

Raquel Hernandez, a research associate professor of molecular and structural biochemistry, noted that the connection to microcephaly has not exactly been proven. However, due to the strong correlation between the Zika outbreak and the increase in microcephaly, Hernandez said, “the likelihood is very high” that Zika is the cause. 

Historically, Zika has not been a particularly dangerous virus. Although it has risen before, its effects have never been as impactful as they are today.

“Generally, this virus was very unstudied because it didn’t have a lot of pathogenesis,” Hernandez said. “People would get a rash, they would get itchy, in 87 percent of cases people wouldn’t even know they were sick because they may not have any symptoms at all.”

However, the most recent outbreak has included additional symptoms, as well as the link to microcephaly. 

“It is a virus that is originally from Africa, and it can be transmitted most commonly by mosquitoes,” Reiskind said. 

It could be a long time before the Zika virus is eliminated, as the difficulties involved in fighting Zika extend beyond just the scientific ones. It could take as long as 10 to 15 years to develop a safe and effective vaccine, but there are social problems as well. 

“In Brazil, what they’re doing now, is they’re trying to teach people that they really cannot be uninterested in their environment,” Hernandez said. “They cannot have trash, because these mosquitoes can breed in just the tiniest drop of water. If you have trash, if you have containers, if you have open buckets of water, […] you’re going to breed these mosquitoes. 

“And people have been reluctant to believe that these tiny little insects can carry so much disease, but they do. It’s the changing of a mindset from, ‘Oh, these mosquitoes live here with us,’ to ‘These mosquitoes are harmful,’” she said.

To fight the virus, Hernandez recommends that people in the affected areas try to keep mosquitoes out of their houses and their living area. 

Reiskind and Hernandez agree, however, that people in North Carolina do not need to be worried about catching it.

“We might get [Zika], but we’re never going to get as badly as they have it over there,” Hernandez said. “We just don’t have the same social structure, we don’t live very close to each other, there’s a lot of sprawl. The environment is just too different here. We don’t live with bugs biting us all the time.” 

According to Reiskind, people in North Carolina do not need to follow the same precautionary recommendations made in Brazil. Reiskind said that potential parents should not wait due to concerns of the Zika virus.

“I think it would start to get into the category of ‘I’m not going to go to the store because I could get into a car accident or get struck by lightning,’” Reiskind said.