GENEVA — Zika no longer constitutes a global health emergency because intensified research during the past months has provided a better understanding of the virus, the World Health Organization said in Geneva on Friday.
However, the U.N. health agency acknowledged that the disease, which can cause neurological problems, remains a serious, long-term problem.
“WHO’s response is here to stay in a very robust manner,” WHO’s health emergency chief, Peter Salama, told reporters.
WHO had declared the emergency in February amid unproven indications that the virus can cause unborn children to develop unusually small brains, a condition known as microcephaly.
The emergency “was never really meant to try to stop the outbreak,” said epidemologist David Heymann, who heads the WHO’s Zika emergency committee.
Rather, it had been called “so that the world could come together and better understand these extraordinary events of microcephaly that were going on.”
Since February, scientists have become certain of the link between Zika and a rise in such neurological birth defects.
In addition, the global health alarm was sounded because of the upcoming Summer Olympics Rio in August, WHO officials said.
Transmission of the mosquito-borne disease has been reported in 75 countries since last year, most of them in Latin America.
Brazil has been hit the hardest, with more than 2,000 babies born with unusually small heads or other neurological problems that have been linked to Zika.
“We would expect more cases of microcephaly over the course of the years to come” also in other countries, Salama said, adding that it was not possible to predict at what rate.
WHO said that the public should consider Zika a seasonal disease, just like chikungunya or dengue fever, which are also spread by mosquitoes that thrive in the tropics during wet seasons.
The U.N. agency has called on health authorities in Zika regions to fight mosquitoes as a key step to halt this virus.
However, the recent Zika outbreaks have also raised concerns because 12 cases of direct transmission between humans have been reported in as many countries since February.
Men and women therefore should practice safe sex for six months after they have returned from Zika areas, even if they had no symptoms, WHO reiterated.
A large share of people who are infected never become ill, and those who do usually have only temporary flu-like symptoms.
