Zika virus infection and congenital anomalies in the Americas: opportunities for regional action

The Zika virus (ZIKV) was identified in 1947 in the Zika forest in Uganda, but recently it has emerged as a public health threat. The first evidence of human infection occurred in 1952, but only in April 2007 was the first outbreak in humans recognized. In the Americas, a ZIKV outbreak began in Brazil in 2015, and from the second half of 2015 onward, a substantial number of newborns with severe microcephaly began to be reported to health authorities. In February 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the clusters of microcephaly cases in areas affected by ZIKV constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Seldom has there been such a resultingly vast production of scientific literature in record time. In this report we discuss the impact of ZIKV infection during pregnancy, the diagnosis and surveillance of microcephaly, the recognition of a clinical phenotype of ZIKV congenital infection, and opportunities for public health action. We consider this to be a unique opportunity for countries in the Region of the Americas to develop, strengthen, and improve surveillance systems for congenital anomalies and teratogen information services. Creating health needs assessment tools for low- and middle-income countries may help them to develop effective policies to ensure primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention measures for congenital anomalies. Such initiatives will be useful for ZIKV congenital syndrome control and also for having a much wider impact on a significant proportion of preventable and manageable congenital conditions.