The spread of Zika is the price being paid for a massive policy failure on mosquito control, says World Health Organization leader Margaret Chan.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the agency’s annual World Health Assembly, Dr Chan said experts had “dropped the ball” in the 1970s with regards to getting a handle on disease-carrying insects.<\/p>\n
More than 60 countries and territories now have continuing Zika transmission.<\/p>\n
Most recently, the infection, spread by mosquito bites,\u00a0reached Africa.<\/a><\/p>\n Experts predict the same strain\u00a0could reach Europe in the summer.<\/a><\/p>\n The virus is thought to cause serious birth defects during pregnancy and has been declared a global public health emergency.<\/p>\n According to Dr Chan, outbreaks that become emergencies always reveal specific weaknesses in affected countries and illuminate the fault lines in our collective preparedness.<\/p>\n “Zika reveals an extreme consequence of the failure to provide universal access to sexual and family planning services,” she said.<\/p>\n Dr Chan added that Latin America and the Caribbean, which have been hit hard by Zika, have the highest proportion of unintended pregnancies in the world.<\/p>\n Above all, she said the spread of Zika was “the price being paid for a massive policy failure that dropped the ball on mosquito control in the 1970s”.<\/p>\n Eradication campaigns were successful in the Americas with\u00a018 countries getting rid of the insect by 1962.<\/a><\/p>\n