Huffington Post: Zika’s Rapid Rise and the Limp Global Response Reveal Dire Global Health Challenges
Peter Katona, clinical professor of medicine in infectious diseases at UCLA

“…In addition to the routine clinical and public health considerations given to all harmful emerging infections, for Zika there are socioeconomic, psychological, and public policy issues that might actually predominate … Policy issues such as abortion; birth control; changing prior inattention to the science of vector-borne infections; travel and tourism implications; constantly changing federal guidelines; confusion with related chikungunya and dengue carried by the same mosquitoes; the possible augmenting role of sentinel events such as the Olympics and the Hajj; and appropriate timely funding from local, regional, national, and international sources — all … need to be addressed in a much more interconnected world. … There are too many unanswered clinical questions, many bizarre complications, an odd complex transmission pattern, delayed funding by a U.S. Congress playing political games, and a very slow international response by a poorly funded WHO emergency response team. There is a need to re-evaluate many social questions…” (11/4).