Cuba experienced an undetected Zika outbreak in 2017, about a year after officials declared the public health emergency over, according to a study published in Cell and cited by The New York Times.
Researchers from La Jolla, Calif.-based Scripps Research discovered the outbreak by analyzing travel-associated Zika cases. They used genomic sequencing of infected travelers' blood samples to trace the virus' ancestry and outbreak dynamics.
The Pan American Health Organization, part of the World Health Organization, had no record of Cuba's Zika cases, according to NYT. Upon inquiries from the publication, the organization said it had not counted 1,384 reported Zika cases in Cuba and failed to publish timely data on the outbreak due to a "technical glitch." PAHO updated its website Aug. 22 to include the data on Cuba's Zika cases.
Researchers said Cuba's outbreak likely involved tens of thousands of unreported cases, on par with other Caribbean countries that faced earlier outbreaks, according to study author Kristian Andersen, PhD, director of infectious disease genomics at the Scripps Research Translational Institute.
"Our study highlights how Zika virus may still be 'silently' spreading and provides a framework for understanding outbreak dynamics," researchers concluded.