Julie A. Jacob, MA

This Medical News & Perspectives article explores current and planned research into the once-obscure Zika virus, which has swept into more than 20 countries and is associated with a steep increase in cases of microcephaly.

Last fall, a team of Yale School of Public Health researchers who were working in Brazil on a long-term leptospirosis study began observing firsthand a surge in microcephaly cases. Alarmed at the increase, Yale researchers and the Brazilian public health organization Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Rio de Janeiro contacted virologists at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) to investigate. Scientists from Yale, Fiocruz, and UTMB are now working to determine whether the Zika virus is the cause of the rise in the microcephaly cases, exemplifying the race to solve the riddles of a virus that evolved from an obscure tropical disease to a World Health Organization (WHO)-declared global health emergency in less than a year (http://bit.ly/1SowcKJ).

JAMA