The virus is spread by mosquitoes, making mosquito avoidance an important element to disease control. The CDC recommends that individuals: * Cover exposed skin by wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants treated with permethrin. * Use an insect repellent containing DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE), or ethyl butylacetylaminopropionate (IR3535) * Always follow product directions and reapply as directed * If you are also using sunscreen, apply sunscreen first, let it dry, then apply insect repellent * Follow package directions when applying repellent on children. Avoid applying repellent to their hands, eyes, or mouth * Stay and sleep in screened-in or air-conditioned rooms * Use a bed net if the area where you are sleeping is exposed to the outdoors * Cover cribs, strollers and carriers with mosquito netting for babies under 2 months old. The CDC also recommends strategies for controlling mosquitoes such as eliminating standing water, repairing septic tanks and using screens on doors and windows. Spraying insecticide is used to kill flying mosquitoes and larvicide can be used in water containers. Because<unk>  virus can be sexually transmitted, men who have gone to an area where<unk>  is occurring should be counseled to either abstain from sex or use condoms for 6 months after travel if their partner is pregnant or could potentially become pregnant. Breastfeeding is still recommended by the WHO, even by women who have had<unk> . There have been no recorded cases of<unk>  transmission to infants through breastfeeding, though the replicative virus has been detected in breast milk. When returning from travel, with or without symptoms, it is suggested that prevention of mosquito bites continue for 3 weeks in order reduce the risk of virus transmission to uninfected mosquitos. CDC travel alert Because of the "growing evidence of a link between<unk>  and microcephaly", in January 2016, the CDC issued a travel alert advising pregnant women to consider postponing travel to countries and territories with ongoing local transmission of<unk>  virus. Later, the advice was updated to caution pregnant women to avoid these areas entirely if possible and, if travel is unavoidable, to protect themselves from mosquito bites. Male partners of pregnant women and couples contemplating pregnancy who must travel to areas where<unk>  is active are advised to use condoms or abstain from sex. The agency also suggested that women thinking about becoming pregnant should consult with their physicians before traveling. In September 2016, the CDC travel advisories included: * Cape Verde * Many parts of the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, The Bahamas, Barbados, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Saba, Saint Saint Barthélemy, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten, Trinidad and Tobago, and the U.S. Virgin Islands * Central America: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama * Mexico * Most of South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela * Several Pacific Islands: American Samoa, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, and Tonga * In Asia: Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei In December 2020, no active<unk>  outbreaks were reported by the CDC. WHO response Both the regional Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) as well as the WHO have issued statements of concern about the widespread public health impact of the<unk>  virus and its links to GBS and microcephaly. The WHO Director-General, Margaret Chan, issued a statement in February 2016 "declaring that the recent cluster of microcephaly cases and other neurological disorders reported in Brazil, following a similar cluster in French Polynesia in 2014, constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern." The declaration allowed the WHO to coordinate international response to the virus as well as gave its guidance the force of international law under the International Health Regulations. The declaration was ended in November 2016. Vaccine As of 2016 there was no available vaccine. Development was a priority of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), but officials stated that development of a vaccine could take years. To speed new drug development regulatory strategies were proposed by the WHO and NIH. Animal and early human studies were underway as of September 2016. As of December 2019, there were several vaccine candidates in various stages of development. Mosquito control Disease control in the affected countries currently centres around mosquito control. Several approaches are available for the management of Aedes aegypti mosquito populations, including the destruction of larval breeding sites (the aquatic pools in which eggs are laid and larvae hatch prior to mosquito development into flying adults); and, insecticides targeting either the larval stages, adult mosquitoes or both. Additionally, a whole host of novel technologies are under current development for mosquito control and the World Health Organization has recently lent its support for the accelerated development of modern methods for mosquito control such as the use of Wolbachia bacteria to render mosquitoes resistant to the virus, and, the release of sterilized male mosquitoes that breed with wild female mosquitoes to give rise to non-viable offspring (offspring that do not survive to the biting, adult stage). Oxitec’s genetically modified OX513A mosquito was approved by Brazil's National Biosecurity Technical Commission (CTNBio) in April 2014 and it was being used to try to combat mosquitoes carrying the<unk>  virus in the town of Piracicaba, São Paulo in 2016. In the 1940s and 1950s, the Aedes aegypti mosquito was eradicated on some Caribbean islands and in at least eighteen Latin American countries. Decreasing political will and presumably available money, mosquito resistance to insecticide, and a pace of urbanization which exceeded eradication efforts led to this mosquito's comeback.
Zika fever
Chikungunya
Leptospirosis
Yellow fever
Dengue fever
Blackwater fever
Malaria
Trench fever