Zika: 'it directly attacks the neurological system'

'Scary' is not a word you want to hear top health officials using when talking about the spread of a virus, but that's exactly how Dr Anne Schuchat of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described the spread of the Zika virus. Speaking at a White House briefing, she said Zika was spreading wider than expected and could have a greater impact than initially predicted. Meanwhile in Brazil, scientists tied the Zika virus to a brain disease similar to multiple sclerosis, expanding the neurological conditions that may be caused by the mosquito-borne virus. The current Zika outbreak began almost a year ago in Brazil and has so far been linked to thousands of birth defects in the Americas. Dr. Anthony Fauci is head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

(Pic: a municipal health worker fumigating the restroom area of a shopping mall as part of the city's effort to prevent the spread of Zika virus' vector, the Aedes aegypti mosquito, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Credit: Reuters)