Uphill Task: Can We Ever Conquer Against New Emerging Viruses?

Abstract

Every time there is a major infectious disease outbreak that scares us, such as Ebola in West Africa, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) on the Arabian Peninsula and South Africa, and Zika virus in South and Central America and the Caribbean; this time arising from a mosquito-borne agent that has spread stealth around the globe [ 1]. It remains one of the great mysteries of the Zika epidemic: Why did a virus that existed for decades elsewhere in the world suddenly seem to become more destructive when it landed in Latin America? An intriguing study in mice, which has prompted some skepticism among experts, suggests that a single genetic mutation- called S139N, first arose in an Asian strain of the Zika virus in 2013, just before a small outbreak in French Polynesia, helped transform the Zika virus into a devastating force in Latin America [2 ]. JMS 2017;20(2):115-116