Although the World Health Organization issued warnings and predictions this week about areas it expects Zika virus to affect, researchers are warning there could be serious ramifications if the organization doesn't take more action immediately.
"An emergency committee should be convened urgently to advise the director-general about the conditions necessary to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern," co-authors Daniel Lucey, MD, and Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University's O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, wrote in a Journal of the American Medical Association article. "The very process of convening the committee would catalyze international attention, funding, and research. While Brazil, [the Pan American Health Organization], and the [CDC] have acted rapidly, WHO headquarters has thus far not been sufficiently proactive given potentially serious ramifications."
The authors point out WHO's delayed action on the 2014-2015 Ebola epidemic as an example of how not to handle the threat of an emerging epidemic.
"The director-general was widely criticized for waiting 4 months after the first cross-border transmission of Ebola before declaring a PHEIC," they wrote. "A key lesson learned from that searing experience was the need for an intermediate-level response to emerging crises, thus avoiding overreaction while still galvanizing global action."
The Zika virus outbreak, which is spreading internationally at a faster clip than Ebola did in its early days, is an opportunity for the WHO to not make the same mistake again, according to Dr. Lucey and Mr. Gostin.